EPCIS

Standard

enables disparate applications to create and share visibility event data, both within and

across enterprises.

Release 2.0, Ratified, Jun 2022

EPCIS Standard

Document Summary

Document Item Current Value

Document Name EPCIS Standard

Document Date Jun 2022

Document Version 2.0

Document Issue

Document Status Ratified

Document Description enables disparate applications to create and share visibility event data, both within and across enterprises.

EPCIS Standard

Contributors

Name Company

Christophe Devins Adents

Roula Karam Antares Vision

Harald Sundmaeker ATB Institut für angewandte Systemtechnik Bremen GmbH

Junyu Wang Auto-ID Labs at Fudan University

Jaewook Byun Auto-ID Labs at KAIST

Sangtae Kim Auto-ID Labs at KAIST

Yalew Tolcha Auto-ID Labs at KAIST

Jeanne Duckett Avery Dennison RFID

Cyrille Bordier Axway

Marcus Chang Axway

Sven Böcklemann benelog GmbH & Co. KG

Aravinda Baliga B benelog GmbH & Co. KG

Onur Önder BLG CONTRACT LOGISTICS GmbH & Co. KG

Laura Weingarten BLG CONTRACT LOGISTICS GmbH & Co. KG

Trond Saure Bouvet Norge AS

Philip Allgaier bpcompass GmbH

Steffen Butschbacher bpcompass GmbH

Maheshwar Lingichetty Bracket Global

Bhavesh Shah Brevitaz Systems

EPCIS Standard

Name Company

Shalika Singh Brevitaz Systems

Hans Peter Scheidt C & A SCS

Arnaud Kreweras Carrefour

Robert Celeste Center for Supply Chain Studies

Jochen Metschke Ceratizit

Doug Migliori ControlBEAM Digital Automation / ADC Technologies Group

Ludovic Fargeas Courbon

Martijn Veerman Customer Value

David Harper Delivr Corporation

Mario Mira Dentsu Aegis Network

Michiel Valee Dockflow

Philip Heggelund DuckScape Inc

Jim Springer EM Microelectronic

Jayson Berryhill Envisible LLC

Nicolas Becker European EPC Competence Center GmbH (EECC)

Falk Nieder European EPC Competence Center GmbH (EECC)

Sebastian Schmittner European EPC Competence Center GmbH (EECC)

Georg Schwering European EPC Competence Center GmbH (EECC)

Dominique Guinard EVRYTHNG

Joël Vogt EVRYTHNG

EPCIS Standard

Name Company

Beth Davis FoodLogiQ

Julie McGill FoodLogiQ

Kevin Capatch Geisinger Health System (GHS)

Chris Roberts GlaxoSmithKline

Gianluca Fazio GS1 Argentina

Catherine Koetz GS1 Australia

Bonnie Ryan GS1 Australia

Sue Schmid GS1 Australia

Marcel Sieira GS1 Australia

Stephan Wijnker GS1 Australia

Eugen Sehorz GS1 Austria

Luiz Costa GS1 Brasil

Flavia Costa GS1 Brasil

Kevin Dean GS1 Canada

Nicole Golestani GS1 Canada

Zubair Nazir GS1 Canada

Connie Wong GS1 Canada

Yi Ding GS1 China

jia jianhua GS1 China

Yan Luo GS1 China

EPCIS Standard

Name Company

Yi Wang GS1 China

zhang wm GS1 China

XinMin Wu GS1 China

Ruoyun Yan GS1 China

James Perng GS1 Chinese Taipei

Luis Paniagua GS1 Costa Rica

Jesper Kervin Franke GS1 Denmark

Petri Leppänen GS1 Finland

Adrien Molines GS1 France

Nicolas Pauvre GS1 France

Mayra Castellanos GS1 Germany

David Hintzen GS1 Germany

Sandra Hohenecker GS1 Germany

Ralph Troeger GS1 Germany

Roman Winter GS1 Germany

Henri Barthel GS1 Global Office

Rosalie Clemens GS1 Global Office

Nadi (Scott) Gray GS1 Global Office

Eileen Harpell GS1 Global Office

EPCIS Standard

Name Company

Nora Kaci GS1 Global Office

Timothy Marsh GS1 Global Office

Neil Piper GS1 Global Office

Craig Alan Repec GS1 Global Office

Greg Rowe GS1 Global Office

John Ryu GS1 Global Office

Kevin Stark GS1 Global Office

Claude Tetelin GS1 Global Office

Elena Tomanovich GS1 Global Office

Jaco Voorspuij GS1 Global Office

Grace Yang GS1 Global Office

Benedict Chan GS1 Hong Kong, China

Chris Lai GS1 Hong Kong, China

Wai Shing Lai GS1 Hong Kong, China

wayne Luk GS1 Hong Kong, China

Zsolt Bocsi GS1 Hungary

Krisztina Vatai GS1 Hungary

Mahdi Barati GS1 Iran

Tim Daly GS1 Ireland

Alec Tubridy GS1 Ireland

EPCIS Standard

Name Company

Emanuela Casalini GS1 Italy

Giada Necci GS1 Italy

Linda Vezzani GS1 Italy

Koji Asano GS1 Japan

Yoshihiko Iwasaki GS1 Japan

Kazuna Kimura GS1 Japan

Noriyuki Mama GS1 Japan

Yuki Sato GS1 Japan

Rocio Rivera GS1 Mexico

Ben Ensink GS1 Netherlands

Sarina Pielaat GS1 Netherlands

Reinier Prenger GS1 Netherlands

Gabriel Sobrino GS1 Netherlands

Jan Westerkamp GS1 Netherlands

Gary Hartley GS1 New Zealand

Klaudiusz Borowiak GS1 Poland

Zbigniew Rusinek GS1 Poland

Pedro Lima GS1 Portugal

Alexey Krotkov GS1 Russia

Olga Soboleva GS1 Russia

EPCIS Standard

Name Company

Alvin Goh GS1 Singapore

Ferran Domenech Fuste GS1 Spain

Mats Bjorkqvist GS1 Sweden

Fredrik Holmström GS1 Sweden

Heinz Graf GS1 Switzerland

Raphael Pfarrer GS1 Switzerland

Shawn Chen GS1 Thailand

Rami Habbal GS1 UAE

Sophie Fuller GS1 UK

Jason Hale GS1 UK

Neil Aeschliman GS1 US

Hussam El-Leithy GS1 US

James Lynch GS1 US

Gena Morgan GS1 US

Melanie Nuce GS1 US

Vivian Underwood GS1 US

Alice Nguyen GS1 Vietnam

Natham Barry IBM (US)

Gokul Kandiraju IBM (US)

Roman Vaculin IBM (US)

EPCIS Standard

Name Company

Sylvia Rubio Alegren ICA Sverige AB

Megan Brewster Impinj, Inc

Patrick Chanez INEXTO SA

Thomas Burke Institute of Food Technologists

Sebastian Bartkowiak Institute of Logistics and Warehousing

José Manuel Cantera Fonseca IOTA Foundation

Masatoshi Nomachi Japan Pallet Rental Corporation

Scott Pugh Jennason LLC

Rosemary Hampton Johnson & Johnson

Rajendra Kulkarni Johnson & Johnson

April Anne Sese Johnson & Johnson

Ken Traub Ken Traub Consulting LLC

Sean Lockhead Lockhead Consulting Group LLC

Ted Osinski MET Laboratories

Alexander Hille Migros-Genossenschafts-Bund

Marc Inderbitzin Migros-Genossenschafts-Bund

Mark Harrison Milecastle Media Limited

Upender Solanki Movilitas Consulting AG

Oliver Erlenkämper Movilizer GmbH

Endre Lazar Movilizer GmbH

EPCIS Standard

Name Company

Mario Mira Movilizer GmbH

Danny Haak Nedap

Vera Feuerstein Nestlé

Jason Geyen Optel Group

Michael Natale Pfizer

Richard Graves Phy

Matt Glassman rfXcel Corporation

Graham Stanley rfXcel Corporation

Jürgen Engelhardt Robert Bosch GmbH

John Fredrik Reimers Robert Bosch GmbH

Nikolaos Servos Robert Bosch GmbH

Jan Reichert SAP SE

Thomas Rumbach SAP SE

Marc Damhösl Schweizerische Bundesbahnen SBB

Dominik Halbeisen Schweizerische Bundesbahnen SBB

Rémy Höhener Schweizerische Bundesbahnen SBB

Holger Strietholt Schweizerische Bundesbahnen SBB

John Walker Semaku

Vladimir Alexiev Sirma AI (Ontotext)

Vladimir Dzalbo Smartrac Technology Germany GmbH

EPCIS Standard

Name Company

Shreenidhi Bharadwajj Syndigo

Tony Zhang Syndigo

Joseph Lipari Systech International

Octavio Rodriguez Systech International

Maik Bollmacher T-Systems International GmbH

Martin Herold T-Systems International GmbH

Tobias Michelchen T-Systems International GmbH

Carsten Baumhögger tabya GmbH

Tobias Müller tabya GmbH

Gergely Köves TE-FOOD International GmbH

Eric Moore Testo

Melissa Banning TraceLink

Elizabeth Waldorf TraceLink

Evan Fernando Tyson

Jay Crowley US Data Management, LLC (USDM)

Bharat Reddy Vaka Vaka Consulting Inc

Rob Magee Vantage Consulting Group

Jussi Numminen wirepas

Nathan Clevenger Zebra Technologies Corporation

Scott Olson Zebra Technologies Corporation

EPCIS Standard

Log of Changes

Release Date of Change Changed By Summary of Change

1.0 Initial version

1.1 May 2014 EPCIS 1.1 is fully backward compatible with EPCIS 1.0.1.

EPCIS 1.1 includes these new or enhanced features:

Support for class-level identification is added to

ObjectEvent, AggregationEvent,

and

TransformationEvent through the addition of quantity lists.

A new event type,

TransformationEvent, provides for the description of events in

which inputs are consumed and outputs are produced.

The “why” dimension of all event types are enhanced so that information about the sources

and destinations of business transfers may be included.

The “why” dimension of certain event types are enhanced so that item/lot master data may

be included.

The

SimpleEventQuery is enhanced to encompass the above changes to event types.

The introductory material is revised to align with the GS1 System Architecture.

The XML extension mechanism is explained more fully.

The QuantityEvent is deprecated, as its functionality is fully subsumed by

ObjectEvent

with the addition of quantity lists.

EPCIS Standard

Release Date of Change Changed By Summary of Change

1.2 Sep 2016 EPCIS 1.2 is fully backward compatible with EPCIS 1.1 and 1.0.1.

EPCIS 1.2 includes these new or enhanced features:

A mechanism is introduced to declare that a prior EPCIS event is in error, for use when it is

impossible to correct the historical trace by means of ordinary EPCIS events. This

mechanism includes the

errorDeclaration structure in an EPCIS event and associated

query parameters.

An optional

eventID is added to all EPCIS events. Its main intended use is to allow for an

error declaration event to (optionally) refer to one or more corrective events.

The Simple Event Query is enhanced to clarify that queries for extension or ILMD fields apply

only to top-level XML elements, and a new set of query parameters is introduced to query

for XML elements nested within top-level elements.

The role of an EPCIS document as a means to transmit events point-to-point is clarified.

The EPCIS Header in the XML schemas is enhanced to allow for optional inclusion of master

data.

The use of extension elements within

<readPoint> and <bizLocation> is deprecated.

Section 13.3 regarding conformance is added.

2.0 June 2022 Major release EPCIS 2.0 in conjunction with CBV 2.0, including:

 Addition of JSON/SON-LD syntax (alongside XML)

 Addition of REST bindings (alongside SOAP/WSDL)

 Completely overhauled UML diagram

 Clarification on distinction between standard vocabulary and user vocabulary

 New AssociationEvent

 New "How" event dimension

 Overview of EPCIS event "dimensions" with cross references to relevant sections in EPCIS

& CBV

 New Persistent Disposition indicates non-transient business state of an object

 New SensorElement to accommodate sensor data

 Addition of certificationInfo to core EPCISEvent

 Updated SimpleEventQuery parameters

 Removal of support for Simple Master Data Query and EPCIS Master Data Document

EPCIS Standard

Disclaimer

GS1

, under its IP Policy, seeks to avoid uncertainty regarding intellectual property claims by requiring the participants in the Work Group that developed this EPCIS Standard to

agree to grant to GS1 members a royalty-free licence or a RAND licence to Necessary Claims, as that term is defined in the GS1 IP Policy. Furthermore, attention is drawn to the

possibility that an implementation of one or more features of this Specification may be the subject of a patent or other intellectual property right that does not involve a Necessary

Claim. Any such patent or other intellectual property right is not subject to the licencing obligations of GS1. Moreover, the agreement to grant licences provided under the GS1 IP Policy

does not include IP rights and any claims of third parties who were not participants in the Work Group.

Accordingly, GS1 recommends that any organisation developing an implementation designed to be in conformance with this Specification should determine whether there are any

patents that may encompass a specific implementation that the organisation is developing in compliance with the Specification and whether a licence under a patent or other intellectual

property right is needed. Such a determination of a need for licencing should be made in view of the details of the specific system designed by the organisation in consultation with their

own patent counsel.

THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED “AS IS” WITH NO WARRANTIES WHATSOEVER, INCLUDING ANY WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY, NONINFRINGMENT, FITNESS FOR PARTICULAR

PURPOSE, OR ANY WARRANTY OTHER WISE ARISING OUT OF THIS SPECIFICATION. GS1 disclaims all liability for any damages arising from use or misuse of this Standard, whether

special, indirect, consequential, or compensatory damages, and including liability for infringement of any intellectual property rights, relating to use of information in or reliance upon

this document.

GS1 retains the right to make changes to this document at any time, without notice. GS1 makes no warranty for the use of this document and assumes no responsibility for any errors

which may appear in the document, nor does it make a commitment to update the information contained herein.

GS1 and the GS1 logo are registered trademarks of GS1 AISBL.

EPCIS Standard

Table of Contents

1 Introduction .............................................................................................................................................................. 21

2 Relationship to the GS1 System Architecture ............................................................................................................. 22

2.1 Overview of GS1 standards .......................................................................................................................................................................... 22

2.2 EPCIS in relation to the “Capture” and “Share” layers ...................................................................................................................................... 23

2.3 EPCIS in Relation to trading partners ............................................................................................................................................................. 24

2.4 EPCIS in relation to other GS1 System Architecture components ....................................................................................................................... 25

3 EPCIS specification principles .................................................................................................................................... 28

4 Terminology and typographical conventions .............................................................................................................. 29

5 EPCIS specification framework .................................................................................................................................. 30

5.1 Layers ....................................................................................................................................................................................................... 30

5.2 Extensibility ................................................................................................................................................................................................ 31

5.3 Modularity .................................................................................................................................................................................................. 31

6 Abstract data model layer .......................................................................................................................................... 33

6.1 Event data and master data ......................................................................................................................................................................... 33

6.1.1 Transmission of master data in EPCIS ................................................................................................................................................... 35

6.2 Standard vocabulary and user vocabulary ...................................................................................................................................................... 36

6.3 Extension mechanisms ................................................................................................................................................................................. 37

6.4 Identifier representation .............................................................................................................................................................................. 39

6.5 Hierarchical vocabularies .............................................................................................................................................................................. 39

7 Data definition layer .................................................................................................................................................. 41

7.1 General rules for specifying data definition layer modules ................................................................................................................................ 41

7.1.1 Content ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 41

7.1.2 Notation ............................................................................................................................................................................................ 42

7.1.3 Semantics .......................................................................................................................................................................................... 43

EPCIS Standard

7.2 Core event types module – overview ............................................................................................................................................................. 44

7.2.1 UML Diagrams of EPCIS Event Types ..................................................................................................................................................... 45

7.2.2 Overview of EPCIS event "dimensions" (non-normative) .......................................................................................................................... 47

7.2.3 Table of vocabulary types .................................................................................................................................................................... 51

7.3 Core event types module – building blocks ..................................................................................................................................................... 52

7.3.1 Primitive types ................................................................................................................................................................................... 52

7.3.2 Action type ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 53

7.3.3 The “What” dimension ......................................................................................................................................................................... 53

7.3.4 The "When" dimension ........................................................................................................................................................................ 55

7.3.5 The “Where” Dimension – read point and business location ...................................................................................................................... 56

7.3.6 The “Why” dimension .......................................................................................................................................................................... 59

7.3.7 The “How” dimension .......................................................................................................................................................................... 66

7.3.8 Instance/Lot master data (ILMD) .......................................................................................................................................................... 73

7.4 Core event types module – events ................................................................................................................................................................ 74

7.4.1 EPCISEvent ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 74

7.4.2 ObjectEvent (subclass of EPCISEvent) ................................................................................................................................................... 78

7.4.3 AggregationEvent (subclass of EPCISEvent) ........................................................................................................................................... 83

7.4.4 TransactionEvent (subclass of EPCISEvent) ............................................................................................................................................ 88

7.4.5 TransformationEvent (subclass of EPCISEvent) ....................................................................................................................................... 93

7.4.6 AssociationEvent (subclass of EPCISEvent) ............................................................................................................................................ 96

8 Service layer ............................................................................................................................................................ 102

8.1 Core capture operations module .................................................................................................................................................................. 103

8.1.1 Authentication and authorisation ........................................................................................................................................................ 103

8.1.2 Capture service ................................................................................................................................................................................ 104

8.2 Core Query operations module .................................................................................................................................................................... 106

8.2.1 Authentication .................................................................................................................................................................................. 106

8.2.2 Authorisation and redaction ............................................................................................................................................................... 106

8.2.3 Queries for large amounts of data ....................................................................................................................................................... 107

8.2.4 Overly complex queries ..................................................................................................................................................................... 107

8.2.5 Query framework (EPCIS query control interface) ................................................................................................................................. 108

EPCIS Standard

8.2.6 Error conditions ................................................................................................................................................................................ 115

8.2.7 Predefined queries for EPCIS .............................................................................................................................................................. 118

8.2.8 Query callback interface .................................................................................................................................................................... 144

9 XML bindings for data definition modules ................................................................................................................ 145

9.1 Extensibility mechanism ............................................................................................................................................................................. 145

9.2 Standard business document header ........................................................................................................................................................... 148

9.3 EPCglobal Base schema ............................................................................................................................................................................. 149

9.4 Master data in the XML binding ................................................................................................................................................................... 149

9.5 Schema for core event types ...................................................................................................................................................................... 151

9.6 Core event types – examples (Non-Normative) ............................................................................................................................................. 152

10 JSON/JSON-LD bindings for data definition ............................................................................................................. 153

10.1 Brief introduction to JSON and JSON-LD in the context of EPCIS ..................................................................................................................... 153

10.1.1 JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) ...................................................................................................................................................... 154

10.1.2 JSON for Linked Data (JSON-LD) ........................................................................................................................................................ 155

10.1.3 Features of the JSON-LD context resource ........................................................................................................................................... 157

10.1.4 Compact URI Expressions (CURIEs) .................................................................................................................................................... 158

10.2 Expression and validation of EPCIS data structures in JSON and JSON-LD ........................................................................................................ 158

10.2.1 Expressing data fields expecting simple values ..................................................................................................................................... 160

10.2.2 Validating data fields expecting simple values ...................................................................................................................................... 161

10.2.3 Validation of fields (e.g. 'action') that expect a string value from an enumerated list ................................................................................. 164

10.2.4 Expressing simple lists of values ......................................................................................................................................................... 165

10.2.5 Validating lists of values .................................................................................................................................................................... 166

10.2.6 Expressing lists of elements with inline attributes expressing type .......................................................................................................... 167

10.2.7 Modelling and validating subclasses of EPCIS event ............................................................................................................................... 169

10.2.8 Comparison of how validation rules are expressed in XSD, JSON Schema and SHACL ................................................................................ 171

10.2.9 Mapping core SBDH fields to the JSON/JSON-LD data format for EPCIS ................................................................................................... 173

10.2.10 Online validation tools for JSON Schema and SHACL ............................................................................................................................. 174

10.2.11 Libraries and toolkits providing JSON-LD support .................................................................................................................................. 174

10.3 Validation schema (references to normative content)..................................................................................................................................... 174

10.4 Non-normative examples in JSON and JSON-LD ............................................................................................................................................ 175

EPCIS Standard

11 Bindings for core capture operations module .......................................................................................................... 175

11.1 Message queue binding .............................................................................................................................................................................. 175

11.2 HTTP binding ............................................................................................................................................................................................ 176

12 REST Bindings .......................................................................................................................................................... 177

12.1 Code conventions ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 177

12.2 Introduction to REST ................................................................................................................................................................................. 177

12.3 Content negotiation, service discovery and custom headers for EPCIS ............................................................................................................. 180

12.4 Authentication and Authorization ................................................................................................................................................................. 183

12.5 Pagination ................................................................................................................................................................................................ 184

12.6 Capturing EPCIS Events ............................................................................................................................................................................. 185

12.6.1 Capture Interface ............................................................................................................................................................................. 185

12.6.2 Capture Jobs Interface ...................................................................................................................................................................... 187

12.7 Events interface ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 188

12.7.1 EPCIS events collections .................................................................................................................................................................... 188

12.7.2 EPCIS events endpoints ..................................................................................................................................................................... 189

12.7.3 Event filtering with the EPCIS query language ...................................................................................................................................... 190

12.7.4 Top-level resources ........................................................................................................................................................................... 191

12.8 Query control interface .............................................................................................................................................................................. 193

12.8.1 Creating and using named queries ...................................................................................................................................................... 195

12.8.2 Deleting named queries ..................................................................................................................................................................... 196

12.8.3 Subscribing to named queries ............................................................................................................................................................ 196

12.8.4 EPCIS query language ....................................................................................................................................................................... 203

12.8.5 EPCIS query in the URL ..................................................................................................................................................................... 203

12.9 Backward Compatibility of REST bindings with EPCIS 1.2 ............................................................................................................................... 205

12.10 EPCIS Error Conditions and HTTP Status Code Mapping.................................................................................................................................. 205

13 Bindings for core query operations module ............................................................................................................. 208

13.1 XML schema for core query operations module ............................................................................................................................................. 208

13.2 SOAP/HTTP binding for the query control interface ........................................................................................................................................ 210

13.3 AS2 Binding for the query control interface .................................................................................................................................................. 210

EPCIS Standard

13.3.1 GS1 AS2 guidelines (Non-Normative) .................................................................................................................................................. 213

13.4 Bindings for query callback interface............................................................................................................................................................ 215

13.4.1 General Considerations for all XML-based bindings ................................................................................................................................ 216

13.4.2 HTTP binding of the query callback interface ........................................................................................................................................ 216

13.4.3 HTTPS binding of the query callback interface ...................................................................................................................................... 217

13.4.4 AS2 Binding of the query callback interface .......................................................................................................................................... 217

14 Conformance ........................................................................................................................................................... 218

14.1 Conformance of EPCIS XML data ................................................................................................................................................................. 218

14.2 Conformance of EPCIS capture interface clients ............................................................................................................................................ 219

14.3 Conformance of EPCIS capture interface servers ........................................................................................................................................... 219

14.4 Conformance of EPCIS query interface clients ............................................................................................................................................... 219

14.5 Conformance of EPCIS query interface servers .............................................................................................................................................. 219

14.6 Conformance of EPCIS query callback interface implementations .................................................................................................................... 220

14.7 Conformance of JSON/JSON-LD bindings ...................................................................................................................................................... 220

14.8 Conformance of REST Interface for EPCIS 2.0 Servers ................................................................................................................................... 220

15 UML Diagrams for SBDH .......................................................................................................................................... 223

15.1 UML aligned with text of SBDH specification ................................................................................................................................................. 224

15.2 UML aligned with XSD of SBDH specification ................................................................................................................................................. 225

16 References ............................................................................................................................................................... 225

EPCIS Standard

1 Introduction

This document is a GS1 standard that defines Version 2.0 of EPC Information Services (EPCIS). The goal of EPCIS is to enable disparate applications to

create and share visibility event data, both within and across enterprises. Ultimately, this sharing is aimed at enabling users to gain a shared view of

physical or digital objects within a relevant business context.

“Objects” in the context of EPCIS typically refers to physical objects that are identified either at a class or instance level and which are handled in physical

handling steps of an overall business process involving one or more organisations. Examples of such physical objects include trade items (products),

logistic units, returnable assets, fixed assets, physical documents, etc. “Objects” may also refer to digital objects, also identified at either a class or

instance level, which participate in comparable business process steps. Examples of such digital objects include digital trade items (music downloads,

electronic books, etc.), digital documents (electronic coupons, etc.), and so forth. Throughout this document the word “object” is used to denote a physical

or digital object, identified at a class or instance level, that is the subject of a business process step. EPCIS data consist of “visibility events,” each of

which is the record of the completion of a specific business process step acting upon one or more objects.

The EPCIS standard was originally conceived as part of a broader effort to enhance collaboration between trading partners by sharing of detailed

information about physical or digital objects. The name EPCIS reflects the origins of this effort in the development of the Electronic Product Code (EPC). It

should be noted, however, that EPCIS does not require the use of Electronic Product Codes, nor of Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) data carriers,

and does not even require instance-level identification (for which the Electronic Product Code was originally designed). The EPCIS standard applies to all

situations in which visibility event data is to be captured and shared, and the presence of “EPC” within the name is of historical significance only.

EPCIS provides open, standardised interfaces that allow for seamless integration of well-defined services in inter-company environments as well as within

companies. Standard interfaces are defined in the EPCIS standard to enable visibility event data to be captured and queried using a defined set of service

operations and associated data standards, all combined with appropriate security mechanisms that satisfy the needs of user companies. In many or most

cases, this will involve the use of one or more persistent databases of visibility event data, though elements of the Services approach could be used for

direct application-to-application sharing without persistent databases.

With or without persistent databases, the EPCIS specification specifies only standard data sharing interfaces between applications that capture visibility

event data and those that need access to it. It does not specify how the service operations or databases themselves should be implemented. This includes

not defining how the EPCIS services should acquire and/or compute the data they need, except to the extent the data is captured using the standard

EPCIS capture operations. The interfaces are needed for interoperability, while the implementations allow for competition among those providing the

technology and implementing the standard.

EPCIS is intended to be used in conjunction with the GS1 Core Business Vocabulary (CBV) standard [CBV2.0]. The CBV standard provides definitions of

data values that may be used to populate the data structures defined in the EPCIS standard. The use of the standardised vocabulary provided by the CBV

standard is critical to interoperability and critical to provide for querying of data by reducing the variation in how different businesses express common

intent. Therefore, applications should use the CBV standard to the greatest extent possible in constructing EPCIS data.

The companion EPCIS and CBV Implementation Guideline [EPCISGuideline] provides additional guidance for building visibility systems using EPCIS and

CBV, including detailed discussion of how to model specific business situations using EPCIS/CBV data and methods for sharing such data between trading

partners.

EPCIS Standard

2 Relationship to the GS1 System Architecture

This section is largely quoted from [GS1Arch], and shows the relationship of EPCIS to other GS1 standards.

2.1 Overview of GS1 standards

GS1 standards support the information needs of end users interacting with each other in supply chains, specifically the information required to support the

business processes through which supply chain participants interact. The subjects of such information are the real-world entities that are part of those

business processes. Real-world entities include things traded between companies, such as products, parts, raw materials, packaging, and so on. Other

real-world entities of relevance to trading partners include the equipment and material needed to carry out the business processes surrounding trade such

as containers, transport, machinery; entities corresponding to physical locations in which the business processes are carried out; legal entities such as

companies, divisions; service relationships; business transactions and documents; and others. Real-world entities may exist in the tangible world, or may

be digital or conceptual. Examples of physical objects include a consumer electronics product, a transport container, and a manufacturing site (location

entity). Examples of digital objects include an electronic music download, an eBook, and an electronic coupon. Examples of conceptual entities include a

trade item class, a product category, and a legal entity.

GS1 standards may be divided into the following groups according to their role in supporting information needs related to real-world entities in supply

chain business processes:

■ Standards which provide the means to identify real-world entities so that they may be the subject of electronic information that is stored and/or

communicated by end users. GS1 identification standards include standards that define unique identification codes (called GS1 identification keys).

■ Standards which provide the means to automatically capture data that is carried directly on physical objects, bridging the world of physical things and

the world of electronic information. GS1 data capture standards include definitions of barcode and radio-frequency identification (RFID) data carriers

which allow identifiers to be affixed directly to a physical object, and standards that specify consistent interfaces to readers, printers, and other

hardware and software components that connect the data carriers to business applications.

■ Standards which provide the means to Share information, both between trading partners and internally, providing the foundation for electronic

business transactions, electronic visibility of the physical or digital world, and other information applications. GS1 standards for information sharing

include this EPCIS Standard which is a standard for visibility event data. Other standards in the “Share” group are standards for master data and for

business transaction data, as well as discovery standards that help locate where relevant data resides across a supply chain and trust standards that

help establish the conditions for sharing data with adequate security.

The EPCIS standard fits into the “Share” group, providing the data standard for visibility event data and the interface standards for capturing such

information from data capture infrastructure (which employs standards from the “Capture” group) and for sharing such information with business

applications and with trading partners.

EPCIS Standard

2.2 EPCIS in relation to the “Capture” and “Share”

layers

The diagram to the right shows the relationship between EPCIS and

other GS1 standards in the “Capture” and “Share” groups. (The

“Identify” group of standards pervades the data at all levels of this

architecture, and so is not explicitly shown.)

As depicted in the diagram above, the EPCIS Capture Interface

exists as a bridge between the “Capture” and “Share” standards.

The EPCIS Query Interface provides visibility event data both to

internal applications and for sharing with trading partners.

At the centre of a data capture application is the data capture

workflow that supervises the business process step within which

data capture takes place. This is typically custom logic that is

specific to the application. Beneath the data capture workflow in the

diagram is the data path between the workflow and GS1 data

carriers: barcodes and RFID. The green bars in the diagram denote

GS1 standards that may be used as interfaces to the data carriers.

At the top of the diagram are the interfaces between the data

capture workflow and larger-scale enterprise applications. Many of

these interfaces are application- or enterprise-specific, though using

GS1 data as building blocks; however, the EPCIS interface is a GS1

standard. Note that the interfaces at the top of the diagram,

including EPCIS, are independent of the data carrier used at the

bottom of the diagram.

The purpose of the interfaces and the reason for a multi-layer data

capture architecture is to provide isolation between different levels

of abstraction. Viewed from the perspective of an enterprise

application (i.e., from the uppermost blue box in the figure), the

entire data capture application shields the enterprise application

from the details of exactly how data capture takes place. Through

the application-level interfaces (uppermost green bars), an

enterprise application interacts with the data capture workflow

through data that is data carrier independent and in which all of the

interaction between data capture components has been

consolidated into that data. At a lower level, the data capture

workflow is cognizant of whether it is interacting with barcode

scanners, RFID interrogators, human input, etc., but the transfer

Filtering &

Collection

EPCIS Accessing

Applications and other

Enterprise-level

Applications

LLRP Interface

ALE Interface

EPCIS Capture

Interface

Data Capture Workflow

Composite

Element

String

Data

Capture

Application

Various app-specific Interfaces

Human

Interfaces

RFID

Reader

RFID Air Interface

RFID Tag

Barcode Symbology

Barcode

= System

= Interface

EPCIS Query Interface

eCOM (GS1 XML / EANCOM) Interface

GDSN Interface

To/from

external

parties

Capture

EPCIS

Repository

Possible

bypass for

real-time

“push”

Sensor

Data

Barcode

Scanner

EPCIS Standard

interfaces (green bars in the middle) shield the data capture workflow from low-level hardware details of exactly how the data carriers work. The lowest

level interfaces (green bars on the bottom) embody those internal data carrier details. EPCIS and the “Share” layer in general differ from elements in the

Capture layer in three key respects:

1. EPCIS deals explicitly with historical data (in addition to current data). The Capture layer, in contrast, is oriented exclusively towards real-time

processing of captured data.

2. EPCIS often deals not just with raw data captured from data carriers such as barcodes and RFID tags, but also in contexts that imbue those

observations with meaning relative to the physical or digital world and to specific steps in operational or analytical business processes. The Capture

layers are more purely observational in nature. An EPCIS event, while containing much of the same “Identify” data as a Filtering & Collection event or

a barcode scan, is at a semantically higher level because it incorporates an understanding of the business context in which the identifier data were

obtained. Moreover, there is no requirement that an EPCIS event be directly related to a specific physical data carrier observation. For example, an

EPCIS event may indicate that a perishable trade item has just crossed its expiration date; such an event may be generated purely by software.

3. EPCIS operates within enterprise IT environments at a level that is much more diverse and multi-purpose than exists at the Capture layer, where

typically systems are self-contained and exist to serve a single business purpose. In part, and most importantly, this is due to the desire to share

EPCIS data between enterprises which are likely to have different solutions deployed to perform similar tasks. In part, it is also due to the persistent

nature of EPCIS data. And lastly, it is due to EPCIS being at the highest level of the overall architecture, and hence the natural point of entry into

other enterprise systems, which vary widely from one enterprise to the next (or even within parts of the same enterprise).

2.3 EPCIS in Relation to trading partners

GS1 standards in the “Share” layer pertain to three categories of data that are shared between end users:

Data Description GS1 standards

Master data Data, shared by one trading partner to many trading partners, that provide descriptive attributes of real-world entities

identified by GS1 identification keys, including trade items, parties, and physical locations.

GDSN

Transaction data Trade transactions triggering or confirming the execution of a function within a business process as defined by an explicit

business agreement (e.g., a supply contract) or an implicit one (e.g., customs processing), from the start of the business

process (e.g., ordering the product) to the end of it (e.g., final settlement), also making use of GS1 identification keys.

GS1 XML

EANCOM

Visibility event data Details about physical or digital activity in the supply chain of products and other assets, identified by keys, detailing where

these objects are in time, and why; not just within one organisation’s four walls, but across organisations.

EPCIS

Transaction Data and Visibility Event Data have the characteristic that new documents of those types are continually created as more business is

transacted in a supply chain in steady state, even if no new real-world entities are being created. Master data, in contrast, is more static: the master data

for a given entity changes very slowly (if at all), and the quantity of master data only increases as new entities are created, not merely because existing

entities participate in business processes. For example, as a given trade item instance moves through the supply chain, new transaction data and visibility

event data are generated as that instance undergoes business transactions (such as purchase and sale) and physical handling processes (packing, picking,

stocking, etc.). But new master data is only created when a new trade item or location is added to the supply chain.

EPCIS Standard

The figure to the right illustrates the flow of data between

trading partners, emphasising the parts of the EPCIS

standard involved in the flow of visibility event data.

In addition to the use of the EPCIS Query Interface as

illustrated above, trading partners may by mutual agreement

use the EPCIS Document structure defined in section 9.3 as a

means to transport a collection of EPCIS events, optionally

accompanied by relevant master data, as a single electronic

document.

2.4 EPCIS in relation to other GS1 System

Architecture components

The following outlines the responsibilities of each element of

the GS1 System Architecture as illustrated in the figures in

the preceding sections. Further information may be found in

[GS1Arch].

■ RFID and Barcode Readers Make observations of RFID

tags while they are in the read zone, and observations of

barcodes when reading is triggered.

■ Low-Level [RFID] Reader Protocol (LLRP) Interface

Defines the control and delivery of raw RFID tag reads

from RFID Readers to the Filtering & Collection role.

Events at this interface say “Reader A saw EPC X at time

T.”

■ Filtering & Collection This role filters and collects raw

RFID tag reads, over time intervals delimited by events

defined by the EPCIS Capturing Application (e.g. tripping

a motion detector). No comparable role typically exists

for reading barcodes, because barcode readers typically

only read a single barcode when triggered.

■ Filtering & Collection (ALE) Interface Defines the control

and delivery of filtered and collected RFID tag read data

from the Filtering & Collection role to the Data Capture

Workflow role. Events at this interface say “At Logical

Reader L, between time T1 and T2, the following EPCs

EPCIS Accessing

Applications and

other Enterprise-

level Applications

EPCIS Capture

Interface

Data Capture Infrastructure

App-specific

Interfaces

eCOM (GS1 XML / EANCOM)

GDSN Interface

and data pools

EPCIS

Repository

EPCIS Query

Interface (Control

and Callback)

EPCIS Accessing

Applications and other

Enterprise-level

Applications

App-specific

Interfaces

EPCIS Capture

Interface

EPCIS

Repository

Data Capture Infrastructure

EPCIS Query traffic – on-demand queries

and standing queries

EPCIS Query

Interface (Control

and Callback)

Trading Partner 1

Trading Partner 2

GS1 Networked Services

Lookup services for

data discovery

GDSN Global

Registry

EPCIS Standard

were observed,” where the list of EPCs has no duplicates and has been filtered by criteria defined by the EPCIS Capturing Application. In the case of

barcodes, comparable data is delivered to the Data Capture Workflow role directly from the barcode reader in the form of a GS1 Element String.

■ Data Capture Workflow Supervises the operation of the lower-level architectural elements, and provides business context by coordinating with other

sources of information involved in executing a particular step of a business process. The Data Capture Workflow may, for example, coordinate a

conveyor system with Filtering & Collection events and barcode reads, may check for exceptional conditions and take corrective action (e.g., diverting

a bad object into a rework area), may present information to a human operator, and so on. The Data Capture Workflow understands the business

process step or steps during which EPCIS event data capture takes place. This role may be complex, involving the association of multiple Filtering &

Collection events and/or barcode reads with one or more business events, as in the loading of a shipment. Or it may be straightforward, as in an

inventory business process where there may be readers deployed that generate observations about objects that enter or leave the shelf. Here, the

Filtering & Collection-level event or barcode read and the EPCIS-level event may be so similar that very little actual processing at the Data Capture

Workflow level is necessary, and the Data Capture Workflow merely configures and routes events from the Filtering & Collection interface and/or

barcode readers directly through the EPCIS Capture Interface to an EPCIS Repository or a business application. A Data Capture Workflow whose

primary output consists of EPCIS events is called an “EPCIS Capturing Application” within this standard.

■ EPCIS Interfaces The interfaces through which EPCIS data is delivered to enterprise-level roles, including EPCIS Repositories, EPCIS Accessing

Applications, and data exchange with partners. Events at these interfaces say, for example, “At location X, at time T, the following contained objects

(cases) were verified as being aggregated to the following containing object (pallet).” There are three EPCIS Interfaces, specified normatively in

this document:

□ The EPCIS Capture Interface defines the delivery of EPCIS events from EPCIS Capturing Applications to other roles that consume the data in

real time, including EPCIS Repositories, and real-time “push” to EPCIS Accessing Applications and trading partners.

□ The EPCIS Query Control Interface defines a means for EPCIS Accessing Applications and trading partners to obtain EPCIS data subsequent to

capture, typically by interacting with an EPCIS Repository. The EPCIS Query Control Interface provides two modes of interaction. In “on-demand”

or “synchronous” mode, a client makes a request through the EPCIS Query Control Interface and receives a response immediately. In “standing

request” or “asynchronous” mode, a client establishes a subscription for a periodic query.

□ Each time the periodic query is executed, the results are delivered asynchronously (or “pushed”) to a recipient via the EPCIS Query Callback

Interface. The EPCIS Query Callback Interface may also be used to deliver information immediately upon capture; this corresponds to the

“possible bypass for real-time push” arrow in the diagram.

■ EPCIS Accessing Application: Responsible for carrying out overall enterprise business processes, such as warehouse management, shipping and

receiving, historical throughput analysis, and so forth, aided by EPCIS visibility event data.

■ EPCIS Repository: Records EPCIS-level events generated by one or more EPCIS Capturing Applications and makes them available for later query by

EPCIS Accessing Applications.

■ Partner Application: Trading Partner systems that perform the same role as an EPCIS Accessing Application, though from outside the responding

party’s network. Partner Applications may be granted access to a subset of the information that is available from an EPCIS Capturing Application or

within an EPCIS Repository.

EPCIS Standard

The interfaces within this stack are designed to insulate the higher levels of the architecture from unnecessary details of how the lower levels are

implemented. One way to understand this is to consider what happens if certain changes are made:

■ The Low-Level [RFID] Reader Protocol (LLRP) and GS1 Element String insulate the higher layers from knowing what RF protocols or barcode

symbologies are in use, and what reader makes/models have been chosen. If a different reader is substituted, the information sent through these

interfaces remains the same.

■ In situations where RFID is used, the Filtering & Collection Interface insulates the higher layers from the physical design choices made regarding how

RFID tags are sensed and accumulated, and how the time boundaries of events are triggered. If a single four-antenna RFID reader is replaced by a

constellation of five single-antenna “smart antenna” readers, the events at the Filtering & Collection level remain the same. Likewise, if a different

triggering mechanism is used to mark the start and end of the time interval over which reads are accumulated, the Filtering & Collection event

remains the same.

■ EPCIS insulates enterprise applications from understanding the details of how individual steps in a business process are carried out at a detailed level.

For example, a typical EPCIS event is “At location X, at time T, the following cases were verified as being on the following pallet.” In a conveyor-based

business implementation, this may correspond to a single Filtering & Collection event, in which reads are accumulated during a time interval whose

start and end is triggered by the case crossing electric eyes surrounding a reader mounted on the conveyor. But another implementation could involve

three strong people who move around the cases and use hand-held readers to read the tags. At the Filtering & Collection level, this looks very

different (each triggering of the hand-held reader is likely a distinct Filtering & Collection event), and the processing done by the EPCIS Capturing

Application is quite different (perhaps involving an interactive console that the people use to verify their work). But the EPCIS event is still the same

for all these implementations.

In summary, EPCIS-level data differs from data employed at the Capture level in the GS1 System Architecture by incorporating semantic information

about the business process in which data is collected, and providing historical observations. In doing so, EPCIS insulates applications that consume this

information from knowing the low-level details of exactly how a given business process step is carried out.

EPCIS Standard

3 EPCIS specification principles

The considerations in the previous two sections reveal that the requirements for standards at the EPCIS layer are considerably more complex than in the

Capture layer of the GS1 System Architecture. The historical nature of EPCIS data implies that EPCIS interfaces need a richer set of access techniques

than ALE or RFID and barcode reader interfaces. The incorporation of operational or business process context into EPCIS implies that EPCIS traffics in a

richer set of data types, and moreover needs to be much more open to extension in order to accommodate the wide variety of business processes in the

world. Finally, the diverse environment in which EPCIS operates implies that the EPCIS Standard be layered carefully so that even when EPCIS is used

between external systems that differ widely in their details of operation, there is consistency and interoperability at the level of what the abstract structure

of the data is and what the data means.

In response to these requirements, EPCIS is described by a framework specification and narrower, more detailed specifications that populate that

framework. The framework is designed to be:

■ Layered: In particular, the structure and meaning of data in an abstract sense is specified separately from the concrete details of data access services

and bindings to particular interface protocols. This allows for variation in the concrete details over time and across enterprises while preserving a

common meaning of the data itself. It also permits EPCIS data specifications to be reused in approaches other than the service-oriented approach of

the present specification. For example, data definitions could be reused in an EDI framework.

■ Extensible: The core specifications provide a core set of data types and operations, but also provide several means whereby the core set may be

extended for purposes specific to a given industry or application area. Extensions not only provide for proprietary requirements to be addressed in a

way that leverages as much of the standard framework as possible, but also provides a natural path for the standards to evolve and grow over time.

■ Modular: The layering and extensibility mechanisms allow different parts of the complete EPCIS framework to be specified by different documents,

while promoting coherence across the entire framework. This allows the process of standardisation (as well as of implementation) to scale.

The remainder of this document specifies the EPCIS framework. It also populates that framework with a core set of data types and data interfaces. The

companion standard, the GS1 Core Business Vocabulary (CBV), provides additional data definitions that layer on top of what is provided by the EPCIS

standard.

EPCIS Standard

4 Terminology and typographical conventions

Within this specification, the terms SHALL, SHALL NOT, SHOULD, SHOULD NOT, MAY, CAN, and CANNOT are to be interpreted as specified in section 7

("Verbal forms for expressions of provisions") of the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2, 2018, 8th edition [ISODir2]. When used in this way, these terms will

always be shown in ALL CAPS; when these words appear in ordinary typeface they are intended to have their ordinary English meaning.

All sections of this document, are normative, except where explicitly noted as non-normative.

The following typographical conventions are used throughout the document:

■ ALL CAPS type is used for the special terms from [ISODir2] enumerated above.

■

Monospace type is used to denote programming language, UML, XML, and JSON (or JSON-LD) identifiers, as well as for the text of XML and JSON (or

JSON-LD) documents.

EPCIS Standard

5 EPCIS specification framework

The EPCIS specification is designed to be layered, extensible, and modular.

5.1 Layers

The EPCIS specification framework is organised into several

layers, as illustrated in the diagram to the right and described

below.

■ Abstract Data Model Layer: The Abstract Data Model Layer

specifies the generic structure of EPCIS data. This is the

only layer that is not extensible by mechanisms other

than a revision to the EPCIS specification itself. The

Abstract Data Model Layer specifies the general

requirements for creating data definitions within the Data

Definition Layer.

■ Data Definition Layer: The Data Definition Layer specifies

what data is exchanged through EPCIS, what its abstract

structure is, and what it means. One data definition

module is defined within the present specification, called

the Core Event Types Module. Data definitions in the

Data Definition Layer are specified abstractly, following

rules defined by the Abstract Data Model Layer.

■ Service Layer: The Service Layer defines service

interfaces through which EPCIS clients interact. In the

present specification, two service layer modules are

defined.

□ The Core Capture Operations Module defines one

service interface (the EPCIS Capture Interface)

through which EPCIS Capturing Applications use to

deliver Core Event Types to interested parties.

□ The Core Query Operations Module defines two

service interfaces (the EPCIS Query Control

Interface and the EPCIS Query Callback Interface)

that EPCIS Accessing Applications use to obtain data

Capture

Interface

Message

Queue

(§ 11.1)

Capture

Interface

HTTP

(§ 11.2)

Capture

Interface

REST

(§ 12.8)

Query

Control

Interface

REST

(§ 12.8)

Query

Control

Interface

AS2

(§ 13.3)

Query

Control

Interface

SOAP

(§ 13.2)

Query

Callback

Interface

HTTP

(§ 13.4.2)

Query

Callback

Interface

HTTPS

(§ 13.4.3)

Query

Callback

Interface

AS2

(§ 13.4.4)

Core Query

XSD

(§ 13.1)

Core Event

XSD

(§ 9)

Core Event

JSON

Schema

(§ 10)

Core Event

SHACL

(§ 10)

Core Event Types

(§ 7.2)

EPCIS

Abstract Data Model

(§ 6)

Core

Capture

Operations

(§ 8.1)

Capture

Interface

Core

Query

Operations

(§ 8.2)

Query

Control

Interface

Query

Callback

Interface

validates

XML

validates

JSON

validates

JSON-LD

depends on

implements

depends on

Service

Layer

Data

Definition

Layer

Abstract

Data

Model

Layer

GS1 Comprehensive Business Vocabulary

Standard

Query

Callback

Interface

REST

(§ 12.8.3)

EPCIS Standard

previously captured. Interface definitions in the Service Layer are specified abstractly using UML.

■ Bindings: Bindings specify concrete realisations of the Data Definition Layer and the Service Layer. There may be many bindings defined for any given

Data Definition or Service module. In this specification, a number of bindings are specified for the three modules defined in the Data Definition and

Service Layers.

□ The data definitions in the Core Event Types data definition module are given bindings to XML schema, JSON schema and SHACL.

□ The EPCIS Capture Interface in the Core Capture Operations Module is given bindings for Message Queue, HTTP and REST.

□ The EPCIS Query Control Interface in the Core Query Operations Module is given a binding to SOAP over HTTP via a WSDL web services

description, a binding for AS2, and a REST binding.

□ The EPCIS Query Callback Interface in the Core Query Operations Module is given bindings to HTTP, HTTPS, and AS2; the REST binding specifies

the WebSocket to support subscriptions.

■ GS1 Core Business Vocabulary Standard: The GS1 Core Business Vocabulary standard [CBV] is a companion to the EPCIS standard. It defines specific

vocabulary elements that may be used to populate the data definitions specified in the Data Definition Layer of the EPCIS standard. While EPCIS may

be used without CBV, by employing only private or proprietary data values, it is far more beneficial for EPCIS applications to make as much use of the

CBV Standard as possible.

5.2 Extensibility

The layered technique for specification promotes extensibility, as one layer may be reused by more than one implementation in another layer. For

example, while this specification includes an XML binding of the Core Event Types data definition module, another specification may define a binding of the

same module to a different syntax, for example a CSV file.

Besides the extensibility inherent in layering, the EPCIS specification includes several specific mechanisms for extensibility:

■ Subclassing: Data definitions in the Data Definition Layer are defined using UML, which allows a new data definition to be introduced by creating a

subclass of an existing one. A subclass is a new type that includes all of the fields of an existing type, extending it with new fields. An instance of a

subclass may be used in any context in which an instance of the parent class is expected.

■ Extension Points: Data definitions and service specifications also include extension points, which vendors may use to provide extended functionality

without creating subclasses.

5.3 Modularity

The EPCIS specification framework is designed to be modular. That is, it does not consist of a single specification, but rather a collection of individual

specifications that are interrelated. This allows EPCIS to grow and evolve in a distributed fashion. The layered structure and the extension mechanisms

provide the essential ingredients to achieving modularity, as does the grouping into modules.

EPCIS Standard

While EPCIS specifications are modular, there is no requirement that the module boundaries of the specifications be visible or explicit within

implementations of EPCIS. For example, there may be a particular software product that provides a SOAP/HTTP-based implementation of a case-to-pallet

association service and a product catalogue service that traffics in data defined in the relevant data definition modules. This product may conform to as

many as six different modules from the EPCIS standard: the data definition module that describes product catalogue data, the data definition module that

defines case-to-pallet associations, the specifications for the respective services, and the respective SOAP/HTTP bindings. But the source code of the

product may have no trace of these boundaries, and indeed the concrete database schema used by the product may denormalise the data so that product

catalogue and case-to-pallet association data are inextricably entwined. But as long as the net result conforms to the specifications, this implementation is

permitted.

EPCIS Standard

6 Abstract data model layer

This section gives a normative description of the abstract data model that underlies EPCIS.

6.1 Event data and master data

Generically, EPCIS deals in two kinds of data: event data and master data. Event data arises in the course of carrying out business processes, and is

captured through the EPCIS Capture Interface and made available for query through the EPCIS Query Interfaces. Master data is additional data that

provides the necessary context for interpreting the event data. It is available for query through the EPCIS Query Control Interface, but the means by

which master data enters the system is not specified in the EPCIS standard.

The Abstract Data Model Layer does not attempt to define the meaning of the terms “event data” or “master data,” other than to provide precise

definitions of the structure of the data as used by the EPCIS specification. The modelling of real-world business information as event data and master data

is the responsibility of the Data Definition Layer, and of industry and end-user agreements that build on top of this specification.

Non-Normative: Explanation: While for the purposes of this specification the terms “event data” and “master data” mean nothing more than “data

that fits the structure provided here,” the structures defined in the Abstract Data Model Layer are designed to provide an appropriate representation

for data commonly requiring exchange through EPCIS. Informally, these two types of data may be understood as follows. Event data grows in

quantity as more business is transacted, and refers to things that happen at specific moments in time. An example of event data is “At 1:23pm on

15 March 2004, EPC X was observed at Location L.” Master data does not generally grow merely because more business is transacted (though

master data does tend to grow as organisations grow in size), is not typically tied to specific moments in time (though master data may change

slowly over time), and provides interpretation for elements of event data. An example of master data is “Location L refers to the distribution centre

located at 123 Elm Street, Anytown, US.” All of the data in the set of use cases considered in the creation of the EPCIS standard can be modelled as

a combination of event data and master data of this kind.

EPCIS Standard

The structure of event data and master

data in EPCIS is illustrated to the right.

(Note that this is an illustration only: the

specific vocabulary elements and master

data attribute names in this figure are not

defined within this specification.)

The ingredients of the EPCIS Abstract

Data Model are defined below:

■ Event Data: A set of Events.

■ Event: A structure consisting of an

Event Type and one or more named

Event Fields.

■ Event Type: A namespace-qualified

name (qname) that indicates to which

of several possible Event structures

(as defined by the Data Definition

Layer) a given event conforms.

■ Event Field: A named field within an

Event. The name of the field is given

by a qname, referring either to a field

name specified by the Data Definition

Layer or a field name defined as an extension to this specification. The value of the field may be a primitive type (such as an integer or timestamp), a

Vocabulary Element, or a list of primitive types or Vocabulary Elements.

■ Master data: A set of Vocabularies, together with master data attributes associated with elements of those Vocabularies.

■ Vocabulary: A named set of identifiers. The name of a Vocabulary is a qname that may be used as a type name for an event field. The identifiers

within a Vocabulary are called Vocabulary Elements. A Vocabulary represents a set of alternative values that may appear as the values of specific

Event Fields. Vocabularies in EPCIS are used to model sets such as the set of available location names, the set of available business process step

names, and so on.

■ Vocabulary Element: An identifier that names one of the alternatives modelled by a Vocabulary. The value of an Event Field may be a Vocabulary

Element. Vocabulary Elements are represented as Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs). Each Vocabulary Element may have associated master data

attributes.

■ Master data attributes: An unordered set of name/value pairs associated with an individual Vocabulary Element. The name part of a pair is a qname.

The value part of a pair may be a value of arbitrary type. A special attribute is a (possibly empty) list of children, each child being another vocabulary

element from the same vocabulary. See section 6.5

ObjectEvent

Tim e = 1.23pm 15th March 2020

EPC = urn:epc:id:sgtin:9524141

.100734.400

bizStep = urn:epcglobal:cbv:bizstep:shipping

bizLocation = urn:epc:id:sgln:9524141.12345.0

BizStep Vocabulary

urn:epcglobal:cbv:bizstep:receiving

urn:epcglobal:cbv:bizstep

:shipping

...

BizLocation Vocabulary

urn:epc:id:sgln:9524141

.12345.0

urn:epc:id:sgln:9524141.33245.0

urn:epc:id:sgln:9524141.33245.1

...

address = 123 Elm St

city = Anytown

postalCode = 12345

Children urn:epc:id:sgln: ...

sampleAttrName

= sampleValue

...

Event Type

Event

Master Data Vocabularies Master Data Attributes

Event Data

Master Data

EPCIS Standard

New EPCIS Events are generated at the edge and delivered into EPCIS infrastructure through the EPCIS Capture Interface, where they can subsequently

be delivered to interested applications through the EPCIS Query Interfaces. There is no mechanism provided in either interface by which an application can

delete or modify an EPCIS Event. The only way to “retract” or “correct” an EPCIS Event is to generate a subsequent event whose business meaning is to

rescind or amend the effect of a prior event (section 7.4.1.2.1

discusses how this may be done).

While the EPCIS Capture Interface and EPCIS Query Interfaces provide no means for an application to explicitly request the deletion of an event, EPCIS

Repositories MAY implement data retention policies that cause old EPCIS events to become inaccessible after some period of time.

Master data, in contrast, may change over time, though such changes are expected to be infrequent relative to the rate at which new event data is

generated. The current version of this specification does not specify how master data changes (nor, as noted above, does it specify how master data is

entered in the first place).

6.1.1 Transmission of master data in EPCIS

The EPCIS Capture and Query Interfaces are primarily concerned with the transmission of EPCIS Events. The means by which master data enters a system

that implements these interfaces is not specified in the EPCIS standard. However, the EPCIS standard does provide mechanisms for transmission of

master data, which an implementation may use to ensure that the recipient of EPCIS event data has access to the master data necessary to interpret that

event data. Alternatively, master data may be transmitted by means entirely outside the EPCIS standard. The EPCIS standard does not impose any

requirements on whether EPCIS event data is accompanied by master data or not, other than to require that master data accompanying event data be

consistent with any master data in ILMD sections of those events.

The EPCIS standard provides two mechanisms for transmission of master data, summarised in the table below:

Mechanism Section Description Constraint

ILMD 7.3.8 An EPCIS event that marks the

beginning of life for an

instance-level or lot-level

identifier may include

corresponding master data

directly in the event.

The master data in the event SHALL reflect the current values of master data attributes,

as known to the event creator, as of the event time. Note that because this data is

embedded directly in the event, it is permanently a part of that event and will always be

included when this event is queried for (subject to redaction as specified in section 8.2.2

Header of XML EPCIS

document

9.5 An EPCIS document used for

point-to-point transmission of

a collection of EPCIS events

outside of the EPCIS Query

Interface may include relevant

master data in the document

header.

The master data in the document header SHALL reflect the current values of master data

attributes, as known to the document creator, as of the time the document is created.

Master data in the header of an EPCIS document SHALL NOT specify attribute values that

conflict with the ILMD section of any event contained within the EPCIS document body.

EPCIS Standard

6.2 Standard vocabulary and user vocabulary

Before version 2.0, EPCIS / CBV have previously used the terms 'vocabulary type' to refer to standard EPCIS event data fields whose value is expected to

be populated either using one of the enumerated values of the corresponding 'standard vocabulary' defined within CBV or with a value 'user vocabulary'

that might be defined by a single organisation, solution provider, industry sector or other consortium.

Starting with version 2.0, EPCIS and CBV add support for Linked Data (in particular, a JSON-LD representation and formal Linked Data ontologies for the

data models). A Linked Data ontology is sometimes also referred to as a vocabulary. However, when specialists in ontologies, Linked Data or Semantic

Web talk about a vocabulary, they are not only referring to enumerated code lists; a Linked Data vocabulary can also define classes, properties and

identifiers in addition to code lists of enumerated values. The table below provides a mapping of the historical terminology used within EPCIS/CBV versus

the terminology used by ontologists, in which 'vocabulary' has a much broader meaning than 'enumeration'.

Example EPCIS/CBV describes as Ontological description

( A Linked Data Vocabulary or Web Vocabulary can

define anything below)

ObjectEvent

Event Type Class

eventTime field A field Datatype Property

(expects a non-URI literal value)

epcList field A field Object Property

(expecting a URI)

bizStep field A 'Vocabulary Type' Object Property

(expecting a URI)

'shipping' An individual value within CBV BizStep Vocabulary Individual within a Class

(value within a code list enumeration)

['shipping', 'receiving', …] a CBV Vocabulary, 'BizStep' Class containing individuals, each individual having a

definition, the class representing a code list

Vocabularies are used extensively within EPCIS to model physical, digital, and conceptual entities that exist in the real world. Examples of vocabularies

defined in the core EPCIS Data Definition Layer are location names, object class names (an object class name is something like “Acme Deluxe Widget,” as

opposed to an EPC which names a specific instance of an Acme Deluxe Widget), and business step names. In each case, a vocabulary represents a finite

(though open-ended) set of alternatives that may appear in specific fields of events.

It is useful to distinguish two kinds of vocabularies, which follow different patterns in the way they are defined and extended over time:

■ Standard Vocabulary: A Standard Vocabulary represents a set of Vocabulary Elements whose definition and meaning must be agreed to in advance by

trading partners who will exchange events using the vocabulary. For example, the EPCIS Core Data Definition Layer defines a vocabulary called

“business step,” whose elements are identifiers denoting such things as “shipping,” “receiving,” and so on. One trading partner may generate an event

having a business step of “shipping,” and another partner receiving that event through a query can interpret it because of a prior agreement as to

what “shipping” means.

EPCIS Standard

Standard Vocabulary elements are defined in the CBV, as well as in more application-specific GS1 application standards, having been developed and

vetted by user-driven GS1 workgroups. The master data associated with Standard Vocabulary elements are defined by those same organisations and

tend to be distributed to users as part of a specification or by some similar means. New vocabulary elements within a given Standard Vocabulary are

introduced through a very deliberate process, such as the ratification of a new version of a standard or through a vote of a GS1 workgroup. While an

individual end user organisation acting alone may introduce a new Standard Vocabulary element, such an element would have limited use in a data

exchange setting and would probably only be used within an organisation’s four walls.

■ User Vocabulary: A User Vocabulary represents a set of Vocabulary Elements whose definition and meaning are under the control of a single

organisation or consortium. For example, the EPCIS Core Data Definition Layer defines a vocabulary called “business location,” whose elements are

identifiers denoting such things as “Acme Corp. Distribution Centre #3.” Acme Corp may generate an event having a business location of “Acme Corp.

Distribution Centre #3,” and another partner receiving that event through a query can interpret it either because it correlates it with other events

naming the same location, or by looking at master data attributes associated with the location, or both.

User Vocabulary elements are primarily defined by users or consortia. New vocabulary elements within a given User Vocabulary are introduced at the

sole discretion of these parties, and trading partners must be prepared to respond accordingly. Usually, however, the rules for constructing new User

Vocabulary Elements are established by organisations of multiple end users, and in any case must follow the rules defined in section 6.4

below.

The lines between these two kinds of vocabularies are subjective. Because the mechanisms defined in the EPCIS specification make no distinction

between the two vocabulary types, it is never necessary to identify a particular vocabulary as belonging to one type or the other. The terms “Standard

Vocabulary” and “User Vocabulary” are introduced only because they are useful as a hint as to the way a given vocabulary is expected to be defined and

extended.

The CBV provides standardised vocabulary elements for many of the vocabulary types used in EPCIS event types. In particular, the CBV defines

vocabulary elements for the following EPCIS Standard Vocabulary types: Business Step, Disposition, Persistent Disposition, Business Transaction Type,

Source/Destination Type, Error Reason, and Sensor Property Type. The CBV also defines templates for constructing vocabulary elements for the following

EPCIS User Vocabulary types: Object (EPC), Object Class (EPCClass), Location (Read Point and Business Location), Business Transaction ID,

Source/Destination ID, Transformation ID, Event ID, Chemical Substance ID, Microorganism ID, and Resource ID.

6.3 Extension mechanisms

A key feature of EPCIS is its ability to be extended by different organisations to adapt to particular business situations. In all, the Abstract Data Model

Layer provides five methods by which the data processed by EPCIS may be extended (the Service Layer, in addition, provides mechanisms for adding

additional services), enumerated here from the most invasive type of extension to the least invasive:

■ New Event Type: A new Event Type may be added in the Data Definition Layer. Adding a new Event Type requires each of the Data Definition Bindings

to be extended, and may also require extension to the Capture and Query Interfaces and their Bindings.

■ New Event Field: A new field may be added to an existing Event Type in the Data Definition Layer. The bindings, capture interface, and query

interfaces defined in this specification are designed to permit this type of extension without requiring changes to the specification itself. (The same

may not be true of other bindings or query languages defined outside this specification.)

EPCIS Standard

■ New Vocabulary Type: A new Vocabulary Type may be added to the repertoire of available Vocabulary Types. No change to bindings or interfaces are

required.

■ New master data attribute: A new attribute name may be defined for an existing Vocabulary. No change to bindings or interfaces are required.

■ New Instance/Lot master data (ILMD) Attribute: A new attribute name may be defined for use in Instance/Lot master data (ILMD); see section 7.3.8

No change to bindings or interfaces are required.

■ New Vocabulary Element A new element may be added to an existing Vocabulary.

The Abstract Data Model Layer has been designed so that most extensions arising from adoption by different industries or increased understanding within

a given industry can be accommodated by the latter methods in the above list, which do not require revision to the specification itself. The more invasive

methods at the head of the list are available, however, in case a situation arises that cannot be accommodated by the latter methods.

It is expected that there will be several different ways to extend the EPCIS specification, as summarised below:

How extension is disseminated Responsible organisation Extension method

New

Event

Type

New

Event

Field

New

Vocabulary

Type

New master data

or ILMD (section

7.3.8

) Attribute

New Vocabulary Element

New Version of EPCIS standard GS1 EPCIS/CBV MSWG Yes Yes Yes Occasionally Rarely

New Version of CBV standard GS1 EPCIS/CBV MSWG No No No Yes Yes (Standard Vocabulary, User

Vocabulary template)

GS1 Application Standard for a

specific industry

GS1 Application Standard

Working Group for a

specific industry

Rarely Rarely Occasionally Yes Yes (Standard Vocabulary)

GS1 Member Organisation Local

Recommendation Document for

a specific industry within a

specific geography

GS1 Member Organisation Rarely Rarely Occasionally Yes Yes (Standard Vocabulary)

Private Group Interoperability

Specification

Industry Consortium or

Private End User Group

outside GS1

Rarely Rarely Occasionally Yes Yes (Standard Vocabulary)

Updated master data via EPCIS

Query or other data sync

Individual End User Rarely Rarely Rarely Rarely Yes (User vocabulary)

EPCIS Standard

6.4 Identifier representation

The Abstract Data Model Layer introduces several kinds of identifiers, including Event Type names, Event Field names, Vocabulary names, Vocabulary

Elements, and master data Attribute Names. Because all of these namespaces are open to extension, this specification imposes some rules on the

construction of these names so that independent organisations may create extensions without fear of name collision.

Vocabulary Elements are subject to the following rules. In all cases, a Vocabulary Element is represented as Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) whose

general syntax is defined in [RFC3986]. The types of URIs admissible as Vocabulary Elements are those URIs for which there is an owning authority. This

includes:

■ URI representations for EPC codes [TDS]. The owning authority for a particular EPC URI is the organisation to whom the GS1 Company Prefix (or other

issuing authority, depending on the EPC scheme) was assigned.

■ Absolute Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) [RFC1738]. The owning authority for a particular URL is the organisation that owns the Internet domain

name in the authority portion of the URL.

■ Uniform Resource Names (URNs) [RFC8141] in the

oid namespace that begin with a Private Enterprise Number (PEN). The owning authority for an

OID-URN is the organisation to which the PEN was issued.

■ Uniform Resource Names (URNs) [RFC8141] in the

epc or epcglobal namespace, other than URIs used to represent EPCs [TDS]. The owning

authority for these URNs is GS1.

■ GS1 Digital Link URIs in the form normatively specified in the GS1 Digital Link standard

[GS1DL], restricted to a highly constrained set of GS1 Digital

Link URIs that corresponds to each of the EPC Pure Identity URI schemes defined in TDS. (See section 8 of CBV for details.) The canonical form of GS1

Digital Link URIs is recommended but optional.

Event Type names and Event Field names are represented as namespace-qualified names (qnames), consisting of a namespace URI and a name. This has

a straightforward representation in XML bindings that is convenient for extension.

6.5 Hierarchical vocabularies

Some Vocabularies have a hierarchical or multi-hierarchical structure. For example, a vocabulary of location names may have an element that means

“Acme Corp. Retail Store #3” as well others that mean “Acme Corp. Retail Store #3 Backroom” and “Acme Corp. Retail Store #3 Sales Floor.” In this

example, there is a natural hierarchical relationship in which the first identifier is the parent and the latter two identifiers are children.

Hierarchical relationships between vocabulary elements are represented through master data. Specifically, a parent identifier carries, in addition to its

master data attributes, a list of its children identifiers. Each child identifier SHALL belong to the same Vocabulary as the parent. In the example above, the

element meaning “Acme Corp. Distribution Centre #3” would have a children list including the element that means “Acme Corp. Distribution Centre #3

Door #5.”

Elsewhere in this specification, the term “direct or indirect descendant” is used to refer to the set of vocabulary elements including the children of a given

vocabulary element, the children of those children, etc. In other words, the “direct or indirect descendants” of a vocabulary element include both the

vocabulary elements from the next lower hierarchical level, as well as vocabulary elements in subsequent lower hierarchical levels.

EPCIS Standard

A given element MAY be the child of more than one parent. This allows for more than one way of grouping vocabulary elements; for example, locations

could be grouped both by geography and by function. An element SHALL NOT, however, be a child of itself, either directly or indirectly.

Non-Normative: Explanation: In the present version of this specification, only one hierarchical relationship is provided for, namely the relationship

encoded in the special “children” list. Future versions of this specification may generalise this to allow more than one relationship, perhaps encoding

each relationship via a different master data attribute.

Hierarchical relationships are given special treatment in queries (section 8.2), and may play a role in carrying out authorisation policies (section 8.2.2

but do not otherwise add any additional complexity or mechanism to the Abstract Data Model Layer.

The GS1 GLN Allocation Rules Standard [GLNAR3.0] provide a normative framework for identification of parties and locations.

EPCIS Standard

7 Data definition layer

This section includes normative specifications of modules in the Data Definition Layer.

7.1 General rules for specifying data definition layer modules

The general rules for specifying modules in the Data Definition Layer are given here. These rules are then applied in section 7.2 to define the Core Event

Types Module. These rules can also be applied by organisations wishing to layer a specification on top of this specification.

7.1.1 Content

In general, a Data Definition Module specification has these components, which populate the Abstract Data Model framework specified in section 6:

■ Value Types: Definitions of data types that are used to describe the values of Event Fields and of master data attributes. The Core Event Types Module

defines the primitive types that are available for use by all Data Definition Modules. Each Vocabulary that is defined is also implicitly a Value Type.

■ Event Types: Definitions of Event Types, each definition giving the name of the Event Type (which must be unique across all Event Types) and a list of

standard Event Fields for that type. An Event Type may be defined as a subclass of an existing Event Type, meaning that the new Event Type includes

all Event Fields of the existing Event Type plus any additional Event Fields provided as part of its specification.

■ Event Fields: Definitions of Event Fields within Event Types. Each Event Field definition specifies a name for the field (which must be unique across all

fields of the enclosing Event Type) and the data type for values in that field. Event Field definitions within a Data Definition Module may be part of new

Event Types introduced by that Module, or may extend Event Types defined in other Modules.

■ Vocabulary Types: Definitions of Vocabulary Types, each definition giving the name of the Vocabulary (which must be unique across all Vocabularies),

a list of standard master data attributes for elements of that Vocabulary, and rules for constructing new Vocabulary Elements for that Vocabulary.

(Any rules specified for constructing Vocabulary Elements in a Vocabulary Type must be consistent with the general rules given in section 6.4

)

■ Master data attributes: Definitions of master data attributes for Vocabulary Types. Each master data attribute definition specifies a name for the

Attribute (which must be unique across all attributes of the enclosing Vocabulary Type) and the data type for values of that attribute. Master data

definitions within a Data Definition Module may belong to new Vocabulary Types introduced by that Module, or may extend Vocabulary Types defined

in other Modules.

■ Vocabulary Elements: Definitions of Vocabulary Elements, each definition specifying a name (which must be unique across all elements within the

Vocabulary, and conform to the general rules for Vocabulary Elements given in section 6.4

as well as any specific rules specified in the definition of the

Vocabulary Type), and optionally specifying master data (specific attribute values) for that element.

Non-Normative: Amplification: As explained in section 6.3, Data Definition Modules defined in this specification and by companion specifications

developed by the EPCIS Working Group will tend to include definitions of Value Types, Event Types, Event Fields, and Vocabulary Types, while

modules defined by other groups will tend to include definitions of Event Fields that extend existing Event Types, master data attributes that extend

EPCIS Standard

existing Vocabulary Types, and Vocabulary Elements that populate existing Vocabularies. Other groups may also occasionally define Vocabulary

Types.

The word “Vocabulary” is used informally to refer to a Vocabulary Type and the set of all Vocabulary Elements that populate it.

7.1.2 Notation

In the sections below, Event Type and Event fields are specified using a restricted form of UML class diagram notation. UML class diagrams used for this

purpose may contain classes that have attributes (fields) and associations, but not operations.

The example UML diagram to the right shows a

data definition for two Event Types,

EventType1 and EventType2. These event

types make use of four Value Types:

Type1,

Type2, DataClass3, and DataClass4.

Type1 and Type2 are primitive types, while

DataClass3 and DataClass4 are complex

types whose structure is also specified in UML.

The Event Type

1 in this example has four

fields.

Field1 and Field2 are of primitive

type

Type1 and Type2 respectively. 1 has

another field

Field3 whose type is

DataClass3. Finally, 1 has another field

Field4 that contains a list of zero or more

instances of type

DataClass4 (the “0..*”

notation indicates “zero or more”).

This diagram also shows a data definition for

EventType2. The arrow with the open-triangle

arrowhead indicates that

EventType2 is a subclass of EventType1. This means that EventType2 actually has five fields: four fields inherited from

EventType1 plus a fifth field5 of type Type1.

Within the UML descriptions, the notation <<extension point>> identifies a place where implementations SHALL provide for extensibility through the

addition of new data members. (When one type has an extension point, and another type is defined as a subclass of the first type and also has an

extension point, it does not mean the second type has two extension points; rather, it merely emphasises that the second type is also open to extension.)

Extensibility mechanisms SHALL provide for both proprietary extensions by vendors of EPCIS-compliant products, and for extensions defined by GS1

through future versions of this specification or through new specifications.

EventType1

field1 : Type1

field2 : Type2

<<extension

point>>

DataClass3

DataClass4

Field3

Field4

0..*

EventType2

field5 : Type1

<<extension

point>>

EPCIS Standard

In the case of the standard XML bindings, the extension points are implemented within the XML schema following the methodology described in section

9.1

All definitions of Event Types SHALL include an extension point, to provide for the extensibility defined in section 6.3 (“New Event Fields”). Value Types

MAY include an extension point.

7.1.3 Semantics

Each event (an instance of an Event Type) encodes several assertions which collectively define the semantics of the event. Some of these assertions say

what was true at the time the event was captured. Other assertions say what is expected to be true following the event, until invalidated by a subsequent

event. These are called, respectively, the retrospective semantics and the prospective semantics of the event. For example, if widget #23 enters building

#5 through door #6 at 11:23pm, then one retrospective assertion is that “widget #23 was observed at door #6 at 11:23pm,”, while a prospective

assertion is that “widget #23 is in building #5.” The key difference is that the retrospective assertion refers to a specific time in the past (“widget #23 was

observed…”), while the prospective assertion is a statement about the present condition of the object (“widget #23 is in…”). The prospective assertion

presumes that if widget #23 ever leaves building #5, another EPCIS capture event will be recorded to supersede the prior one.

In general, retrospective semantics are things that were incontrovertibly known to be true at the time of event capture, and can usually be relied upon by

EPCIS Accessing Applications as accurate statements of historical fact. Prospective semantics, since they attempt to say what is true after an event has

taken place, must be considered at best to be statements of “what ought to be” rather than of “what is.” A prospective assertion may turn out not to be

true if the capturing apparatus does not function perfectly, or if the business process or system architecture were not designed to capture EPCIS events in

all circumstances. Moreover, in order to make use of a prospective assertion implicit in an event, an EPCIS Accessing Application must be sure that it has

access to any subsequent event that might supersede the event in question.

The retrospective/prospective dichotomy plays an important role in EPCIS’s definition of location, in section 7.3.4

In certain situations, an earlier event is subsequently discovered to be in error (the assertions its semantics makes are discovered to be incorrect), and

the error cannot be corrected by recording a new event that adds additional assertions through its own semantics. For these cases, a mechanism is

provided to record an event whose semantics assert that the assertions previously made by the erroneous event are in error. See section 7.4.1.2

EPCIS Standard

7.2 Core event types module – overview

The Core Event Types data definition module specifies the Event Types that represent EPCIS data capture events. These events are typically generated by

an EPCIS Capturing Application and provided to EPCIS infrastructure using the data capture operations defined in section 8.1

. These events are also

returned in response to query operations that retrieve events according to query criteria.

The components of this module, following the outline given in section 7.1.1, are as follows:

■ Value Types: Primitive types defined in section 7.3.1 and 7.3.2.

■ Event Types: Event types as shown in the UML diagram in section 7.2.1, and defined in section 7.4.

■ Event Fields: Included as part of the Event Types defined in section 7.4.

■ Vocabulary Types: Types defined in section 7.3.3 through 7.3.8, and summarised in section 7.1.1.

■ Master data attributes: Included as part of Vocabulary Types definitions. It is expected that industry vertical working groups will define additional

master data attributes for the vocabularies defined here.

■ Vocabulary Elements: None provided as part of this specification. It is expected that industry vertical working groups will define vocabulary elements

for the BusinessStep vocabulary (section 7.3.6), the Disposition vocabulary (section 7.3.6.2), and the BusinessTransactionType vocabulary

(section 7.3.6.3.1).

This module defines six event types, one very generic event and five subclasses that can represent events arising from supply chain activity across a wide

variety of industries:

■

EPCISEvent (section 7.4.1) is a generic base class for all event types in this module as well as others.

■ ObjectEvent (section7.4.2) represents an event that happened to one or more physical or digital objects.

■ AggregationEvent (section 7.4.3) represents an event that happened to one or more objects that are physically aggregated together (physically

constrained to be in the same place at the same time, as when cases are aggregated to a pallet).

■ TransactionEvent (section 7.4.4) represents an event in which one or more objects become associated or disassociated with one or more identified

business transactions.

■ TransformationEvent (section 7.4.5) represents an event in which input objects are fully or partially consumed and output objects are produced,

such that any of the input objects may have contributed to all of the output objects.

■ AssociationEvent (section 7.4.6) is similar to an AggregationEvent, but allows for associations of objects with physical locations, and is especially

suited to capture parent-child relationships that persist even after more temporarily linked children are disassociated from the parent.

A UML diagram showing these Event Types is depicted in the following section.

EPCIS Standard

7.2.1 UML Diagrams of EPCIS Event Types

7.2.1.1 UML with Ontology focus

EPCIS Standard

7.2.1.2 UML with Syntax focus

Figure 7-1

EPCIS Standard

7.2.1.3 UML for SBDH

Note: The UML class diagrams for SBDH, which are not central to the EPCIS event data model, are included in section 13.3.

7.2.2 Overview of EPCIS event "dimensions" (non-normative)

Each of the core event types (not counting the generic EPCISEvent) has fields that represent five key dimensions of any EPCIS event. These five

dimensions are: (1) the object(s) or other entities that are the subject of the event; (2) the date and time; (3) the location at which the event occurred

and/or the whereabouts of the objects subsequent to the event; (4) the business context; (5) the condition of the objects that are the subject of the

event. These five dimensions may be conveniently remembered as “what, when, where, why and how” (respectively). The “what” dimension varies

depending on the event type (e.g., for an

ObjectEvent the “what” dimension is one or more EPCs; for an AggregationEvent the “what” dimension is a

parent ID and list of child EPCs). The “where” and “why” dimensions have both a retrospective aspect and a prospective aspect (see section 7.1.3

represented by different fields. The "how" dimension is populated on the basis of captured sensor data.

The following table summarises the fields of the event types that pertain to the five key dimensions;

in addition to the fields belonging to the five key dimensions, events may carry additional descriptive information in other fields, also indicated in the table

below.

EPCIS Standard

Dimension in

EPCIS/CBV

1.x

Categorisation in

EPCIS/CBV 2.0

Field EPCIS section

in which the field is defined

CBV section

in which its value range is

specified

WHAT

Objects

in Focus

(WHAT)

Instance

epcList

7.4.2 ObjectEvent

7.4.4 TransactionEvent

EPC Tag Data Standard

(TDS) section 6,"EPC

URI"

8.2 Physical or Digital

Objects (Instance)

parentID

7.4.3 AggregationEvent

7.4.4 TransactionEvent

7.4.6 AssociationEvent

childEPCs

7.4.3 AggregationEvent

7.4.6 AssociationEvent

inputEPCList

7.4.5 TransformationEvent

outputEPCList

Class

quantityList

7.4.2 ObjectEvent

7.4.4 TransactionEvent

EPC Tag Data Standard

(TDS) section 8,"URIs

for EPC Pure Identity

Patterns"

8.3 Physical or Digital

Objects (Class)

childQuantityList

7.4.3 AggregationEvent

7.4.6 AssociationEvent

inputQuantityList

7.4.5 TransformationEvent

outputQuantityList

EPCIS Standard

Dimension in

EPCIS/CBV

1.x

Categorisation in

EPCIS/CBV 2.0

Field EPCIS section

in which the field is defined

CBV section

in which its value range is

specified

WHEN

Chronology

(WHEN)

eventTime

7.4.1 EPCISEvent

eventTimeZoneOffset

recordTime

7.4.1 EPCISEvent

WHERE

Whereabouts

(WHERE)

readPoint

7.4.2 ObjectEvent

7.4.3 AggregationEvent

7.4.4 TransactionEvent

7.4.5 TransformationEvent

7.4.6 AssociationEvent

8.4 Locations

bizLocation

n/a

Condition

(HOW)

sensorElementList

7.4.2 ObjectEvent

7.4.3 AggregationEvent

7.4.4 TransactionEvent

7.4.5 TransformationEvent

7.4.6 AssociationEvent

7.6 Sensor Measurement

Types

8.9 Chemical substance

identifiers

8.10 Microorganism

identifiers

WHY

Business

Context

(WHY)

bizStep

7.4.2 ObjectEvent

7.4.3 AggregationEvent

7.4.4 TransactionEvent

7.1 Business Steps

bizTransactionList

8.5 Business

Transactions

EPCIS Standard

Dimension in

EPCIS/CBV

1.x

Categorisation in

EPCIS/CBV 2.0

Field EPCIS section

in which the field is defined

CBV section

in which its value range is

specified

disposition

7.4.5 TransformationEvent

7.4.6 AssociationEvent

7.1 Dispositions

persistentDispositi

7.1 Dispositions

sourceList

8.6 Source/Destination

Identifiers

destinationList

Other fields

ilmd

7.3.7 Instance/lot master

data (ILMD)

9 Trade Item Master

Data

(core field)

action

7.3.2 Action type

(transformationI

transformationID

7.4.5 TransformationEvent

8.7 Transformation

Identifiers

(core field) eventID

7.4.1 EPCISEvent

8.8 Event Identifiers

(core field) errorDeclaration

7.4.1 EPCISEvent

7.5 Error Reason

Identifiers

8.8 Event Identifiers

EPCIS Standard

It is expected that the majority of additional descriptive information fields will be defined by industry-specific specifications layered on top of the core

EPCIS and CBV standards.

7.2.3 Table of vocabulary types

The following table summarises the vocabulary types defined in this module. The URI column gives the formal name for the vocabulary used when the

vocabulary must be referred to by name across the EPCIS interface.

Vocabulary type Section User or

standard

vocabulary

URI

ReadPointID

7.3.5 User

urn:epcglobal:epcis:vtype:ReadPoint

BusinessLocationID

7.3.5 User

urn:epcglobal:epcis:vtype:BusinessLocation

BusinessStepID

7.3.6.1 Standard

urn:epcglobal:epcis:vtype:BusinessStep

DispositionID

7.3.6.2 Standard

urn:epcglobal:epcis:vtype:Disposition

BusinessTransaction

7.3.6.3 User

urn:epcglobal:epcis:vtype:BusinessTransaction

BusinessTrasactionTypeID

7.3.6.3.1 Standard

urn:epcglobal:epcis:vtype:BusinessTransactionType

EPCClass

7.3.3.1.2 User

urn:epcglobal:epcis:vtype:EPCClass

SourceDestTypeID

7.3.6.4.1 Standard

urn:epcglobal:epcis:vtype:SourceDestType

SourceDestID

7.3.6.4.2 User

urn:epcglobal:epcis:vtype:SourceDest

LocationID

7.3.5 User

urn:epcglobal:epcis:vtype:Location

PartyID

7.3.6.4.2 User

urn:epcglobal:epcis:vtype:Party

ErrorReasonID

7.4.1.2 Standard

urn:epcglobal:epcis:vtype:ErrorReason

SensorPropertyTypeID

7.3.7.1.4 Standard

urn:epcglobal:epcis:vtype:SensorPropertyType

MicroorganismID

7.3.7.1.6 User

urn:epcglobal:epcis:vtype:Microorganism

ChemicalSubstanceID

7.3.7.1.7 User

urn:epcglobal:epcis:vtype:ChemicalSubstance

ResourceID

7.3.7.1.8 User

urn:epcglobal:epcis:vtype:Resource

EPCIS Standard

7.3 Core event types module – building blocks

This section specifies the building blocks for the event types defined in section 7.4.

7.3.1 Primitive types

The following primitive types are used within the Core Event Types Module.

Type Description

xsd:int

An integer. Range restrictions are noted where applicable.

xsd:dateTimeStamp

A timestamp, giving the date and time in a time zone-independent manner. For bindings in which fields of this type are represented

textually, an ISO-8601 compliant representation SHOULD be used.

EPC

An Electronic Product Code Pure Identity URI, as defined in [TDS], or a GS1 Digital Link URI, as provided for in CBV section 8.

xsd:float

Patterned after the IEEE single-precision 32-bit floating point datatype; often used to approximate arbitrary real numbers. The ·value

space· of

float contains the non-zero numbers m × 2e , where m is an integer whose absolute value is less than 224, and e is an integer

between −149 and 104, inclusive.

xsd:double

The double-precision floating point datatype is patterned after the IEEE double-precision 64-bit floating point datatype [IEEE 754-

2008]. Each double-precision floating point datatype has a value space that is a subset of the rational numbers. Floating point numbers are

often used to approximate arbitrary real numbers.

xsd:boolean

Represents the values of two-valued logic; has the ·value space· of two-valued logic: {true, false}.

xsd:hexBinary Represents arbitrary hex-encoded binary data; the ·value space· of hexBinary is the set of finite-length sequences of zero or more binary

octets.

xsd:anyURI

Represents an Internationalized Resource Identifier Reference (IRI); an

anyURI

value can be absolute or relative.

xsd:decimal Represents a subset of the real numbers, which can be represented by decimal numerals. The ·value space· of decimal is the set of

numbers that can be obtained by dividing an integer by a non-negative power of ten, i.e., expressible as i / 10n where i and n are integers

and n ≥ 0. Precision is not reflected in this value space; the number 2.0 is not distinct from the number 2.00.

xsd:string

Represents character strings.

The EPC type is defined as a primitive type for use in events when referring to EPCs that are not part of a Vocabulary Type. For example, an SGTIN EPC

used to denote an instance of a trade item in the

epcList field of an ObjectEvent is an instance of the EPC primitive type. But an SGLN EPC used as a

read point identifier (section 7.3.4

) in the ReadPoint field of an ObjectEvent is a Vocabulary Element, not an instance of the EPC primitive type.

Non-Normative: Explanation: This reflects a design decision not to consider individual trade item instances as Vocabulary Elements having master

data, because trade item instances are constantly being created and hence new EPCs representing trade items are constantly being commissioned.

EPCIS Standard

In part, this design decision reflects consistent treatment of master data as excluding data that grows as more business is transacted (see comment

in section 6.1

), and in part reflects the pragmatic reality that data about trade item instances is likely to be managed more like event data than

master data when it comes to aging, database design, etc.

7.3.2 Action type

The Action type says how an event relates to the lifecycle of the entity being described. For example, AggregationEvent (section 7.4.3) is used to

capture events related to aggregations of objects, such as cases aggregated to a pallet. Throughout its life, the pallet load participates in many business

process steps, each of which may generate an EPCIS event. The

action field of each event says how the aggregation itself has changed during the

event: have objects been added to the aggregation, have objects been removed from the aggregation, or has the aggregation simply been observed

without change to its membership? The

action is independent of the bizStep (of type BusinessStepID) which identifies the specific business process

step in which the action took place.

The Action type is an enumerated type having three possible values:

Action

value

Meaning

ADD

The entity in question has been created or added to.

OBSERVE

The entity in question has not been changed: it has neither been created, added to, destroyed, or removed from.

DELETE

The entity in question has been removed from or destroyed altogether.

The description below for each event type that includes an Action value says more precisely what Action means in the context of that event.

Note that the values above are the only values possible for Action. Unlike other types defined below, Action is not a vocabulary type, and SHALL NOT

be extended by industry groups.

7.3.3 The “What” dimension

Section 8.2 and section 8.3 of the CBV defines the data fields and the expected value types and data types used in the “What” dimension of EPCIS events,

including discussion of class-level vs instance-level identification.

EPCIS Standard

7.3.3.1 QuantityElement

A QuantityElement is a structure that identifies objects identified by a specific class-level identifier, either a specific quantity or an unspecified quantity.

It has the following structure:

Field Type Description

epcClass

EPCClass

A class-level identifier for the class to which the specified quantity of objects belongs.

quantity xsd:double

(Optional) A number that specifies how many or how much of the specified EPCClass is denoted by this QuantityElement.

The

quantity may be omitted to indicate that the quantity is unknown or not specified. If quantity is omitted, then uom SHALL be

omitted as well.

Otherwise, if

quantity is specified:

If the

QuantityElement lacks a uom field (below), then the quantity SHALL have a positive integer value, and denotes a count of the

number of instances of the specified

EPCClass that are denoted by this QuantityElement.

If the QuantityElement includes a uom, then the quantity SHALL have a positive value (but not necessarily an integer value), and

denotes the magnitude of the physical measure that specifies how much of the specified

EPCClass is denoted by this

QuantityElement

uom UOM

(Optional) If present, specifies a unit of measure by which the specified quantity is to be interpreted as a physical measure, specifying how

much of the specified

EPCClass

is denoted by this

QuantityElement

. The

uom

SHALL be omitted if

quantity

is omitted.

EPCClass is a Vocabulary whose elements denote classes of objects. EPCClass is a User Vocabulary as defined in section 6.2. Any EPC whose structure

incorporates the concept of object class can be referenced as an EPCClass.

An EPCClass may refer to a class having fixed measure or variable measure. A fixed measure class has instances that may be counted; for example, a

GTIN that refers to fixed-size cartons of a product. A variable measure class has instances that cannot be counted and so the quantity is specified as a

physical measure; for example, a GTIN that refers to copper wire that is sold by length, carpeting that is sold by area, bulk oil that is sold by volume, or

fresh produce that is sold by weight. The following table summarises how the

quantity and uom fields are used in each case:

EPCClass

quantity

field

uom

field

Meaning

Fixed measure Positive integer Omitted

The

quantity

field specifies the count of the specified class.

Variable measure Positive number, not

necessarily an integer

Present

The

quantity field specifies the magnitude, and the uom field the physical unit, of a

physical measure describing the amount of the specified class.

Fixed or Variable Measure Omitted Omitted The quantity is unknown or not specified.

Master data attributes for the EPCClass vocabulary contain whatever master data is defined for the referenced objects independent of EPCIS (for

example, product catalogue data); definitions of these are outside the scope of this specification.

EPCIS Standard

7.3.3.1.1 UOM

As specified above, the uom field of a QuantityElement is present when the QuantityElement uses a physical measure to specify the quantity of the

specified

EPCClass. When a uom field is present, its value SHALL be the 2- or 3-character code for a physical unit specified in the “Common Code”

column of UN/CEFACT Recommendation 20 [CEFACT20]. Moreover, the code SHALL be a code contained in a row of [CEFACT20] meeting all of the

following criteria:

■ The “Quantity” column contains one of the following quantities: length, area, volume, or mass.

■ The “Status” column does not contain “X” (deleted) or “D” (deprecated).

For purposes of the first criterion, the quantity must appear as a complete phrase. Example: “metre” (MTR) is allowed, because the quantity includes

length (among other quantities such as breadth, height, etc.). But “pound-force per foot” (F17) is not allowed, because the quantity is force divided by

length, not just length.

7.3.3.1.2 Class-level identifiers

Class-level identifiers are specified -- as EPC URNs and GS1 Digital Link URIs -- in section 8.3 of CBV.

Implementations SHALL understand queries expressed in both EPC URN and GS1 Digital Link URI syntaxes, and MAY return query

responses corresponding to either syntax, at the discretion of the responding implementation. The requesting client might need to translate the

identifiers within the query response into its preferred syntax.

7.3.3.2 Identifier types (Non-Normative)

The normative specifications of identifiers are in the EPC Tag Data Standard [TDS], the EPC Core Business Vocabulary [CBV] and the GS1 Digital Link

Standard [DL].

7.3.4 The "When" dimension

The "When" dimension of EPCIS includes data fields that provide a chronological context to visibility events.

7.3.4.1 The "When" dimension in the EPCISEvent common base type

The EPCISEvent common base type includes the eventTime, recordTime and eventTimeZoneOffset fields, as specified in section 7.4.1

7.3.4.2 The "When" dimension in the Error Declaration

The EPCIS Error Declaration element, specified in section 7.4.1.2.1 , includes -- beyond the reiterated fields of the original, erroneous event -- the

declarationTime field.

EPCIS Standard

7.3.4.3 The "When" dimension in Sensor Metadata

EPCIS Sensor Metadata, specified in section 7.3.7.1.1, includes the time, startTime, and endTime fields, which relate to the time of sensor data capture

(i.e., rather than the time of the EPCIS event capture).

7.3.5 The “Where” Dimension – read point and business location

This section addresses the notion of location information as used in EPCIS.

EPCIS location types are defined as EPCIS Vocabulary Types, as follows:

Type Description

ReadPointID

A Read Point is a discretely recorded location that is meant to identify the most specific place at which an EPCIS event took place. Read

Points are determined by the EPCIS Capturing Application, perhaps inferred as a function of logical reader if stationary readers are used,

perhaps determined overtly by reading a location tag if the reader is mobile, or in general determined by any other means the EPCIS

Capturing Application chooses to use. Conceptually, the Read Point is designed to identify “where objects were at the time of the EPCIS

event.”

BusinessLocationID

A Business Location is a uniquely identified and discretely recorded location that is meant to designate the specific place where an object is

assumed to be following an EPCIS event until it is reported to be at a different Business Location by a subsequent EPCIS event. As with the

Read Point, the EPCIS Capturing Application determines the Business Location based on whatever means it chooses. Conceptually, the

Business Location is designed to identify “where objects are following the EPCIS event.”

ReadPointID and BusinessLocationID are User Vocabularies as defined in section 6.2. Some industries may wish to use EPCs as vocabulary

elements, in which case pure identity URIs as defined in [TDS] SHALL be used.

Note:

The LocationID type is a supertype of ReadPointID, BusinessLocationID, and SourceDestID. In an EPCIS master data document (or master data

header within an EPCIS document or EPCIS query document), the

urn:epcglobal:epcis:vtype:Location URI may be used to specify a single

vocabulary containing identifiers that may appear in the read point, business step, source, or destination field of associated EPCIS events.

Non-Normative: Illustration: For example, in industries governed by GS1 General Specifications, readPointID, and businessLocationID may

be SGLN-URIs.

Location vocabulary elements are not required to be EPCs.

Non-Normative: Explanation: Allowing non-EPC URIs for locations gives organisations greater freedom to reuse existing ways of naming locations.

For all of the EPCIS Event Types defined in this section, capture events include separate fields for Read Point and Business Location. In most cases, both

are optional, so that it is still possible for an EPCIS Capturing Application to include partial information if both are not known.

EPCIS Standard

Non-Normative: Explanation: Logical Reader and Physical Reader are omitted from the definitions of EPCIS events in this specification. Physical

Reader is generally not useful information for exchange between partners. For example, if a reader malfunctions and is replaced by another reader

of identical make and model, the Physical Reader ID has changed. This information is of little interest to trading partners. Likewise, the Logical

Reader ID may change if the capturing organisation makes a change in the way a particular business process is executed; again, not often of

interest to a partner.

The distinction between Read Point and Business Location is very much related to the dichotomy between retrospective semantics and prospective

semantics discussed above. In general, Read Points play a role in retrospective semantics, while Business Locations are involved in prospective

statements. This is made explicit in the way each type of location enters the semantic descriptions given at the end of each section below that defines an

EPCIS capture event.

EPCIS Standard

7.3.5.1 Example of the distinction between a read point and a business location (Non-Normative)

Tag Time Read Point Business Location Comment

#123 07:00 “RP-DC#88-A” DC#88.Receive & Store Product entered DC via DockDoor#R1

#123 09:00 “RP-DC#88-K” DC#88.Shipping Product placed on conveyor for shipping

#123 09:30 “RP-DC#88-N” [omitted] Product shipped via dock door#S2

The figure above shows a typical use case consisting of rooms with fixed doorways at the boundaries of the rooms. In such a case, Read Points correspond

to the doorways (with RFID instrumentation) and Business Locations correspond to the rooms. Note that the Read Points and Business Locations are not in

Receive & Store

Shipping

#88

Physical View:

Graph View

ShippingReceive

& Store

RP:K

RP:C

RP:B

RP:A

RP:O

RP:N

RP:M

DC#88

Recv Dock

#R3

Recv Dock#R2

Recv Dock#R1

Shipping Dock#S3

Shipping Dock#S2

Shipping Dock#S1

RP : A

RP : B

RP : C

RP : M

RP : O

RP : K

RP : N

EPCIS Standard

one-to-one correspondence; the only situation where Read Points and Business Locations could have a 1:1 relationship is the unusual case of a room with

a single door, such a small storeroom.

Still considering the rooms-and-doors example, the Business Location is usually the location type of most interest to a business application, as it says

which room an object is in. Thus, it is meaningful to ask the inventory of a Business Location such as the backroom. In contrast, the Read Point indicates

the doorway through which the object entered the room. It is not meaningful to ask the inventory of a doorway. While sometimes not as relevant to a

business application, the Read Point is nevertheless of significant interest to higher level software to understand the business process and the final status

of the object, particularly in the presence of less than 100% read rates. Note that correct designation of the business location requires both that the

tagged object be observed at the Read Point and that the direction of movement be correctly determined – again reporting the Read Point in the event will

be very valuable for higher level software.

A supply chain like the rooms-and-doors example may be represented by a graph in which each node in the graph represents a room in which objects may

be found, and each arc represents a doorway that connects two rooms. Business Locations, therefore, correspond to nodes of this graph, and Read Points

correspond to the arcs. If the graph were a straight, unidirectional chain, the arcs traversed by a given object could be reconstructed from knowing the

nodes; that is, Read Point information would be redundant given the Business Location information. In more real-world situations, however, objects can

take multiple paths and move “backwards” in the supply chain. In these real-world situations, providing Read Point information in addition to Business

Location information is valuable for higher level software.

The key to balancing seemingly conflicting requirements is to define and relate various location types, and then to rely on the EPCIS Capturing Application

to properly record them for a given capture event. This is why EPCIS events contain both a ReadPointID and a BusinessLocationID (the two primitive

location types).

7.3.6 The “Why” dimension

This section defines the data fields and the expected value types and data types used in the “Why” dimension of the event types specified in section

7.3.6.4

7.3.6.1 Business step

BusinessStepID is a vocabulary whose elements denote steps in business processes. An example is an identifier that denotes “shipping.” The business

step field of an event specifies the business context of an event: what business process step was taking place that caused the event to be captured?

BusinessStepID is an example of a Standard Vocabulary as defined in section 6.2.

Non-Normative: Explanation: Using an extensible vocabulary for business step identifiers allows GS1 standards (including and especially the GS1

Core Business Vocabulary) to define some common terms such as “shipping” or “receiving,” while allowing for industry groups and individual end-

users to define their own terms. Master data provides additional information.

This specification defines no master data attributes for business step identifiers.

EPCIS Standard

7.3.6.2 Disposition and Persistent Disposition

DispositionID is a vocabulary whose elements denote a business state of an object. An example is an identifier that denotes “recalled.”

7.3.6.2.1 Disposition

The disposition field of an event specifies the business condition of the event’s objects, subsequent to the event. The disposition is assumed to hold true

until another event indicates a change of disposition. Intervening events that do not specify a disposition field have no effect on the presumed disposition

of the object.

DispositionID is an example of a Standard Vocabulary as defined in section 6.2.

EPCIS Standard

Applicability of Disposition by event type

event type

Action

value

Disposition

applies to

ObjectEvent ADD

OBSERVE

DELETE

epcList

quantityList

AggregationEvent ADD

OBSERVE

parentID

childEPCs

childQuantityList

DELETE childEPCs

childQuantityList

TransactionEvent ADD

OBSERVE

DELETE

parentID

epcList

quantityList

TransformationEvent

n/a

outputEPCList

outputQuantityList

AssociationEvent ADD

OBSERVE

parentID

childEPCs

childQuantityList

DELETE childEPCs

childQuantityList

7.3.6.2.2 Persistent Disposition

The persistentDisposition field of an event specifies one or more business conditions of the event’s objects, subsequent to the event. One or more

persistentDisposition values can be set or unset, independently of each other. Values that are set are considered to remain valid until explicitly

unset. Like disposition, persistentDisposition leverages the DispositionID Standard Vocabulary.

EPCIS Standard

NOTE: persistentDisposition SHOULD only be used in conjunction with ObjectEvents with Action type OBSERVE, in order to avoid the potential for

ambiguity with regard to inheritance of persistentDisposition by child/input/output objects.

Non-Normative: Explanation: Using an extensible vocabulary for disposition identifiers allows GS1 standards (including and especially the GS1

Core Business Vocabulary) to define some common terms such as “recalled” or “in transit,” while allowing for industry groups and individual end-

users to define their own terms. Master data may provide additional information.

This specification defines no master data attributes for disposition identifiers.

EPCIS Standard

Applicability of persistentDisposition by event type

event type

Action

value

set

unset

persistentDisposition

applies to

ObjectEvent ADD

OBSERVE

DELETE

epcList

quantityList

AggregationEvent ADD

OBSERVE

DELETE

n/a

TransactionEvent ADD

OBSERVE

DELETE

n/a

TransformationEvent

n/a

outputEPCList

outputQuantityList

AssociationEvent ADD

OBSERVE

DELETE

n/a

7.3.6.3 Business transaction

A BusinessTransaction identifies a particular business transaction. An example of a business transaction is a specific purchase order. Business

Transaction information may be included in EPCIS events to record an event’s participation in particular business transactions.

A business transaction is described in EPCIS by a structured type consisting of a pair of identifiers, as follows.

Field Type Description

type BusinessTransactionTypeID

(Optional) An identifier that indicates what kind of business transaction this

BusinessTransaction denotes. If omitted, no information is available about the type of

business transaction apart from what is implied by the value of the

bizTransaction

field itself.

bizTransaction

BusinessTransactionID

An identifier that denotes a specific business transaction.

The two vocabulary types BusinessTransactionTypeID and BusinessTransactionID are defined in the sections below.

EPCIS Standard

7.3.6.3.1 Business transaction type

BusinessTransactionTypeID is a vocabulary whose elements denote a specific type of business transaction. An example is an identifier that denotes

“purchase order.”

BusinessTransactionTypeID is an example of a Standard Vocabulary as defined in section 6.2.

Non-Normative: Explanation: Using an extensible vocabulary for business transaction type identifiers allows GS1 standards to define some

common terms such as “purchase order” while allowing for industry groups and individual end-users to define their own terms. Master data may

provide additional information.

This specification defines no master data attributes for business transaction type identifiers.

7.3.6.3.2 Business transaction ID

BusinessTransactionID is a vocabulary whose elements denote specific business transactions. An example is an identifier that denotes “Acme Corp

purchase order number 12345678.”

BusinessTransactionID is a User Vocabulary as defined in section 6.2.

Non-Normative: Explanation: URIs are used to provide extensibility and a convenient way for organisations to distinguish one kind of transaction

identifier from another. For example, if Acme Corporation has purchase orders (one kind of business transaction) identified with an 8-digit number

as well as shipments (another kind of business transaction) identified by a 6-character string, the following business transaction IDs might be

associated with a particular EPC over time:

https://transaction.acme.com/po/12345678

https://transaction.acme.com/shipment/34ABC8

An EPCIS Accessing Application might query EPCIS and discover both of the transaction IDs; using URIs gives the application a way to understand

which ID is of interest to it.

7.3.6.4 Source and destination

Source or Destination is used to provide additional business context when an EPCIS event is part of a business transfer; that is, a process in which

there is a transfer of ownership, responsibility, and/or custody of physical or digital objects.

In many cases, a business transfer requires several individual business steps (and therefore several EPCIS events) to execute; for example, shipping

followed by receiving, or a more complex sequence such as loading  departing  transporting  arriving  unloading  accepting. The

ReadPoint and

BusinessLocation in the “where” dimension of these EPCIS events indicate the known physical location at each step of the process. Source and

Destination, in contrast, may be used to indicate the parties and/or location that are the intended endpoints of the business transfer. In a multi-step

business transfer, some or all of the EPCIS events may carry

Source and Destination, and the information would be the same for all events in a given

transfer.

EPCIS Standard

Source and Destination provide a standardised way to indicate the parties and/or physical locations involved in the transfer, complementing the

business transaction information (e.g., purchase orders, invoices, etc.) that may be referred to by

BusinessTransaction elements.

A source or destination is described in EPCIS by a structured type consisting of a pair of identifiers, as follows.

Field Type Description

type SourceDestTypeID (Optional in BizTransaction, required in SourceOrDestination, and optional in SensorReport). Indicates the kind of

BizTransaction document (e.g., po), role of SourceOrDestination (e.g., owning_party), or kind of measurement in

SensorReport (e.g., Mass).

source

destination

SourceDestID An identifier that denotes a specific source or destination.

The two vocabulary types SourceDestTypeID, and SourceDestID are defined in the sections below.

7.3.6.4.1 Source/Destination type

SourceDestTypeID is a vocabulary whose elements denote a specific type of business transfer source or destination. An example is an identifier that

denotes “owning party.”

SourceDestTypeID is an example of a Standard Vocabulary as defined in section 6.2.

Non-Normative: Explanation: Using an extensible vocabulary for source/destination type identifiers allows GS1 standards to define some common

terms such as “owning party” while allowing for industry groups and individual end-users to define their own terms. Master data may provide

additional information.

This specification defines no master data attributes for source/destination type identifiers.

7.3.6.4.2 Source/Destination ID

SourceDestID is a vocabulary whose elements denote specific sources and destinations. An example is an identifier that denotes “Acme Corporation (an

owning party).”

SourceDestID is a User Vocabulary as defined in section 6.2.

Note:

The PartyID type is a supertype of SourceDestID. The urn:epcglobal:epcis:vtype:Location URI may be used to specify a single vocabulary

containing identifiers that may populate the source or destination field(s) of associated EPCIS events.

Non-Normative: Explanation: URIs are used to provide extensibility and a convenient way for organisations to distinguish one kind of source or

destination identifier from another.

EPCIS Standard

7.3.7 The “How” dimension

This section defines the data fields and the expected value types and data types used in the “How” dimension.

7.3.7.1 SensorElement

SensorElement is a structure that contains an optional sensorMetadata element and one or several sensorReport elements, described as follows:

Field Type Description

sensorMetadata

SensorMetadata

(Optional) An element containing one or several metadata attributes, which are applicable to all sensorReport

elements that are part of the same sensorElement.

sensorReport

SensorReport

An element containing one or several attributes that pertain to a specific sensor observation.

For the sake of compactness, all elements contained in either the sensorMetadata or sensorReport element are inline attributes.

The following rules apply:

1. A sensorElement parent element MAY contain exactly one sensorMetadata element and SHALL contain one or more sensorReport elements.

2. The values of any inline attributes specified within the

sensorMetadata element are assumed to apply for all sensorReport elements contained

within that same

sensorElement.

3. The following inline attributes are permitted to appear both in a

sensorMetadata as well as in a sensorReport element:

dataProcessingMethod, deviceID, deviceMetadata, rawData, and time (which are specified in section 7.3.7.1.1). If they are present in a

sensorElement container, they SHALL either be specified in the sensorMetadata element or in the sensorReport element(s) and SHALL NOT

appear in both.

Non-normative: Explanation: Even though it would technically be feasible, EPCIS SHOULD NOT be used to accommodate raw sensor data unless there is

a strong reason to do so. The added value of the

sensorElement in EPCIS consists in the abstraction from raw sensor data and provisioning of

aggregated, business-oriented data to accessing applications. For instance, instead of capturing thousands of time-stamped datasets, it is often far more

appropriate and efficient to only indicate the range of values of a given sensor property within a given period of time. For that purpose, an EPCIS

capturing application would only need to populate four fields:

minValue, maxValue, startTime, and endTime. Even if there is a business need to have

the ability to access the underlying raw sensor data, it is neither required nor advisable to include raw data in the EPCIS event. Instead, it is advisable to

include a Web URI in the

rawData element, pointing to a resource through which clients can access the underlying raw sensor data.

7.3.7.1.1 SensorMetadata

SensorMetadata element contains a number of inline attributes, defined as follows.

EPCIS Standard

Field Type Description

time xsd:dateTimeStamp

(Optional) The actual point in time of an observation as transmitted by a sensor device.

If present, the

time value SHALL be less (earlier) than or equal to the eventTime value.

It SHALL also contain a time zone offset value.

The coordination and integrity of distributed computing requires time synchronisation of EPCIS events

conveying sensor data. Therefore, when populating the

time, startTime, and endTime field, EPCIS

capture applications SHOULD apply established time synchronisation protocols such as IEEE 1588-2008,

which provides a standard method to synchronise device clocks in a network.

Note: The eventTime applies to the completion of a business step, not a sensor observation. For

instance, for a receiving event accommodating a sensor element, the eventTime indicates when goods

were received – it gives no information when certain conditions (e.g. a specific temperature value) held

true. In some circumstances, event and sensor observation times may correspond though (e.g. if a quality

inspector checks certain properties of goods). In such cases, indicating the

eventTime

may be sufficient.

startTime

xsd:dateTimeStamp

(Optional) The lowest (earliest) value of a given observation period as transmitted by a sensor device.

If present, the

startTime

SHALL be less (earlier) than the

eventTime

value and the

endTime

value.

endTime xsd:dateTimeStamp

(Optional) The highest (most recent) value of a given observation period, as transmitted by a sensor

device.

If present, the

endTime

SHALL be less (earlier) than or equal to the

eventTime

value.

deviceID

EPC

(Optional) Device from which the sensor data originates.

deviceMetadata ResourceID

(Optional) Storage location of an electronic document accommodating metadata of the device from which

the sensor data originates.

rawData ResourceID

(Optional) Storage/service location of the raw sensor data on which the aggregated/business-oriented data

contained in the

sensorElement

is based.

dataProcessingMethod ResourceID

(Optional) Storage location of an electronic document accommodating the data processing method of the

contained sensor data, if applicable.

For instance, before sensor data is captured in an EPCIS event, the latter might be redacted or refined by

means of specific algorithms.

bizRules ResourceID

(Optional) Storage location of an electronic document accommodating product- or application-specific

business rules on which basis the EPCIS event was triggered.

For instance, an EPCIS capturing application might only trigger an event if the ‘what’ dimension contains a

certain product class (e.g. GTIN of a cold-storage pharmaceutical product) AND a certain temperature

threshold was exceeded.

Note: In contrast to a business transaction, a business rules file is not a standard-defined, interoperably

communicated business document such as an invoice. In addition, the set of rules typically will only

change in an infrequent manner.

EPCIS Standard

7.3.7.1.2 SensorReport

A sensorReport element contains a number of inline attributes, defined as follows.

Field Type Description

type

SensorPropertyTypeID

An identifier that indicates what kind of property the SensorReport element pertains to.

Expected values for type can be MeasurementType or a custom URI.

Sensor measurement types SHALL be expressed using either URIs or Compact URI

Expressions (CURIEs), as follows:

• https://gs1.org/voc/X

• gs1: X

where the X part is a string as specified in CBV section 7.6.3

exception gs1:SensorAlertType (Required if there is no type field in SensorReport)

An identifier that indicates what kind of exception this

SensorReport

denotes.

deviceID

EPC

See previous section.

deviceMetadata

ResourceID

See previous section.

rawData

ResourceID

See previous section.

dataProcessingMethod

ResourceID

See previous section.

time

xsd:dateTimeStamp

See previous section.

microorganism MicroorganismID

(Optional) Identifies a specific microorganism species.

If microorganism is present, a SensorReport element SHALL NOT include

chemicalSubstance

chemicalSubstance ChemicalSubstanceID

(Optional) Identifies a specific chemical substance.

If chemicalSubstance is present, a SensorReport element SHALL NOT include

microorganism

EPCIS Standard

Field Type Description

value xsd:double (Optional) Value of the property specified by the type as part of the sensorReport

element.

If a chemicalSubstance or microorganism field is present, the value indicates the

detected measurement (e.g., of molar mass or concentration) of a chemical substance or

microorganism in the physical objects specified in the ‘What’ dimension.

If a time field is present, the value SHALL pertain to this point in time. Otherwise,

value SHALL refer to the eventTime.

NOTE:

xsd:float supports values with positive or negative exponents, whereas

xsd:decimal supports only values with negative exponents.

For example, a sensor pressure value in pascals may have positive exponents.

component cbv:Comp

(Optional) Some measurement types (e.g. force, pressure) are vectors (having magnitude

and direction in space), whereas others (e.g. temperature, absolute humidity) are scalars.

The components of a vector in a coordinate system can be specified by setting the value of

component to indicate which vector component has magnitude indicated by the value

parameter. The

SensorReport element is then repeated as two or three instances to

express each component of the vector in two or three dimensions, the pair or trio of

SensorReport elements sharing the same values for all fields except value,

component and uom (which may differ for each vector component).

If present, the

SensorReport element MUST also include the value and uom fields.

Sensor measurement types SHALL be expressed using either URIs or Compact URI

Expressions (CURIEs), as follows:

• https://gs1.org/voc/X

• gs1: X

where the X part is a string as specified in CBV section 7.8

Enumeration list:

• X, Y, Z (cartesian coordinates in 2 or 3 dimensions)

• axialDistance, azimuth, height (cylindrical polars)

• sphericalRadius, azimuth, inclination / polarAngle, elevationAngle (spherical

polars)

• latitude, longitude, elevation / altitude

• easting, northing

EPCIS Standard

Field Type Description

stringValue String

(Optional) The String value of the property specified by the type and/or exception field as

part of the sensorReport element. If a time field is present, the String value SHALL pertain

to this point in time. Otherwise, it SHALL refer to the

eventTime.

booleanValue Boolean

(Optional) The Boolean value of the property specified by the type and/or exception field as

part of the

sensorReport element. If a time field is present, the Boolean value SHALL

pertain to this point in time. Otherwise, it SHALL refer to the

eventTime.

If a chemicalSubstance or microorganism field is included, booleanValue=true means

that this chemical substance/microorganism is present, while booleanValue=false means

that this chemical substance/microorganism is absent, whereas value can be used to

specify the concentration; a non-zero concentration value is incompatible

with

booleanValue=false

hexBinaryValue HexBinary

(Optional) The HexBinary value of the property specified by the type and/or exception field

as part of the

sensorReport element. If a time field is present, the HexBinary value

SHALL pertain to this point in time. Otherwise, it SHALL refer to the

eventTime

uriValue AnyURI

(Optional) The URI value of the property specified by the type and/or exception field as

part of the

sensorReport element. If a time field is present, the URI value SHALL

pertain to this point in time. Otherwise, it SHALL refer to the

eventTime

minValue xsd:double

(Optional) Minimum quantitative value of the property specified by type , as part of the

sensorReport element.

If a

startTime and endTime field is present, the minValue SHALL pertain to the

resulting period. Otherwise,

minValue SHALL pertain to the business process step the

EPCIS event captures.

maxValue xsd:double

(Optional) Maximum quantitative value of the property specified by type, as part of the

SensorReport element. If startTime and endTime fields are present, the

maxValue SHALL pertain to the resulting period. Otherwise, maxValue SHALL pertain to

the business process step the EPCIS event captures.

meanValue xsd:double

(Optional) The arithmetic mean of the values of the property specified by the type as part

of the

sensorReport element.

If a

startTime and endTime field is present, the meanValue SHALL pertain to the

resulting period. Otherwise, it SHALL pertain to the business process step the EPCIS event

captures.

EPCIS Standard

Field Type Description

sDev xsd:double

(Optional) Standard deviation of the values of the property specified by type, as part of

the

sensorReport element.

sDev

SHALL only be used in conjunction with the field

meanValue

percRank xsd:double

(Optional) Percentile rank, signifying the percentage of observations in a frequency

distribution that are equal to or lower than it.

percRank

SHALL only be used in conjunction with the field

percValue

percValue xsd:double

(Optional) The percentile value, at or below which a given percentage of observations (as

specified by

percRank) may be found.

percValue

SHALL only be used in conjunction with the field

percRank

uom UOM (Optional) 2- or 3-character code for a physical unit specified in the Common Code

column of UN/CEFACT Recommendation 20.

Defines a unit of measure by which the specified value(s) should be interpreted. If there is

value, minValue, maxValue, meanValue or percValue field present, uom

SHALL be omitted.

If present, uom should correlate with the specified type (epcis:measurementType),

e.g.,

uom

"KGM" can only be used with

type

Mass

coordinateReferenceSystem anyURI

(Optional) A URI identifying the Coordinate Reference System.

If omitted, the World Geodetic System 1984 (WGS-84) is assumed to apply.

NOTE on extensibility by users/vendors:

Because of <xsd:anyAttribute processContents="lax"/> within XSD validation of SensorReport, any other (user-defined) attributes can be

included / tolerated and will validate, even if they use other data types.

EPCIS Standard

7.3.7.1.3 Coordinate reference systems (CRS)

EPCIS Standard

Non-Normative: Note: In addition to the EPCIS standard attributes as defined above, organisations may wish to provide further sensor-related

context information. In such a case, they may populate the sensorMetadata and sensorReport element with additional attributes. The latter SHOULD

be standardised to the greatest extent possible, through the usage of linked data attributes as specified in [SSN].

7.3.7.1.4 Sensor property type

SensorPropertyTypeID is a standard vocabulary type (see section 7.2.3) whose elements denote specific sensor properties. An example is an identifier

that denotes ‘temperature’.

7.3.7.1.5 UOM

The uom field qualifies the unit of measure of one or several double-precision floating point values that are part of the same sensorReport element and

pertain to the property indicated by the

type attribute. When a uom field is present, its value SHALL be the 2- or 3-character code for a physical unit

specified in the “Common Code” column of UN/CEFACT Recommendation 20 [CEFACT20]. Moreover, the code SHALL NOT be marked as “X” (deleted) or

“D” (deprecated).

7.3.7.1.6 Microorganism ID

MicroorganismID is a user vocabulary type (see section 7.2.3) whose elements denote specific microorganisms. An example is an identifier that

denotes ‘Listeria monocytogenes’.

7.3.7.1.7 Chemical Substance ID

ChemicalSubstanceID is a user vocabulary type (see section 7.2.3) whose elements denote specific chemical substances. An example is an identifier

that denotes “sucrose”.

7.3.7.1.8 Resource ID

ResourceID is a user vocabulary type (see section 7.2.3) whose elements denote specific electronic information resources. An example is an identifier

that denotes a product information page provided by the manufacturer of a sensor device.

7.3.8 Instance/Lot master data (ILMD)

Instance/Lot master data (ILMD) is data that describes a specific instance of a physical or digital object, or a specific batch/lot of objects that are produced

in batches/lots. ILMD consists of a set of descriptive attributes that provide information about one or more specific objects or lots. It is similar to ordinary

master data, which also consists of a set of descriptive attributes that provide information about objects. But whereas master data attributes have the

same values for a large class of objects, (e.g., for all objects having a given GTIN), the values of ILMD attributes may be different for much smaller

EPCIS Standard

groupings of objects (e.g., a single batch or lot), and may be different for each object (i.e., different for each instance). Note that the term 'attribute'

typically corresponds to a fieldname or Linked Data property.

An example of a master data attribute is the weight and physical dimensions of trade items identified by a specific GTIN. These values are the same for all

items sharing that GTIN. An example of ILMD is the expiration date of a perishable trade item. Unlike master data, the expiration date is not the same for

all trade items having the same GTIN; in principle, each may have a different expiration date depending on when it is manufactured. Other examples of

ILMD include date of manufacture, place of manufacture, weight and other physical dimensions of a variable-measure trade item, harvest information for

farm products, and so on.

ILMD, like ordinary master data, is intended to be static over the life of the object. For example, the expiration date of a perishable trade item or the

weight of a variable-measure item does not change over the life of the trade item, even though different trade items having the same GTIN may have

different values for expiration date and weight. ILMD is not to be used to represent information that changes over the life of an object, for example, the

current temperature of an object as it moves through the supply chain.

While there exist standards (such as GDSN) for the registration and dissemination of ordinary master data through the supply chain, standards and

systems for dissemination of ILMD do not yet exist. For this reason, EPCIS allows ILMD to be carried directly in certain EPCIS events. This feature should

only be used when no separate system exists for dissemination of ILMD.

ILMD for a specific object is defined when the object comes into existence. Therefore, ILMD may only be included in

ObjectEvents with action ADD

(section 7.4.1.2), and in TransformationEvents (section 7.4.5). In the case of a TransformationEvent, ILMD applies to the outputs of the

transformation, not to the inputs.

The structure of ILMD defined in this EPCIS standard consists of a set of named attributes, with values of any type. In the XML binding (section 9.5), the

XML schema provides for an unbounded list of XML elements having any element name and content. Other documents layered on top of EPCIS may define

specific ILMD data elements; see section

6.3. In this way, ILMD is similar to event-level EPCIS extensions, but is separate in order to emphasise that ILMD

applies for the entire life of objects, whereas an event-level EPCIS extension only applies to that specific event.

7.4 Core event types module – events

7.4.1 EPCISEvent

EPCISEvent

is a common base type for all EPCIS events. All of the more specific event types in the following sections are subclasses of EPCISEvent.

This common base type only has the following fields.

Field Type Description

eventTime

xsd:dateTimeStamp

The date and time at which the EPCIS Capturing Applications asserts the event occurred.

EPCIS Standard

Field Type Description

recordTime xsd:dateTimeStamp

(Optional) The date and time at which this event was recorded by an EPCIS Repository. This field

SHALL be ignored when an event is presented to the EPCIS Capture Interface, and SHALL be present

when an event is retrieved through the EPCIS Query Interfaces. The

recordTime does not

describe anything about the real-world event, but is rather a bookkeeping mechanism that plays a

role in the interpretation of standing queries as specified in section 8.2.5.2

eventTimeZoneOffset xsd:string

The time zone offset in effect at the time and place the event occurred, expressed as an offset from

UTC. The value of this field SHALL be a string consisting of the character ‘

+’ or the character ‘-’,

followed by two digits whose value is within the range

00 through 14 (inclusive), followed by a

colon character ‘

:’, followed by two digits whose value is within the range 00 through 59

(inclusive), except that if the value of the first two digits is

14, the value of the second two digits

must be

00.

For example, the value

+05:30 specifies that where the event occurred, local time was five hours

and 30 minutes later than UTC (that is, midnight UTC was 5:30am local time).

eventID EventID

(Optional) An identifier for this event as specified by the capturing application, globally unique

across all events other than error declarations. “Globally unique” means different from the

eventID on any other EPCIS event across any implementation of EPCIS, not merely across the

events captured by a single capturing application or by a single capture server. (The Core Business

Vocabulary standard [CBV2.0] specifies the option of a UUID URI or NI Hash URI for this purpose.)

Note that in the case of an error declaration, the event ID will be equal to the event ID of the

erroneous event (or null if the event ID of the erroneous event is null), and in that sense is not

unique. See section 7.4.1.2

errorDeclaration ErrorDeclaration

(Optional) If present, indicates that this event serves to assert that the assertions made by a prior

event are in error. See section 7.4.1.2

certificationInfo gs1:CertificationDetails

(Optional) If present, specifies a URL at which certification details can be found. Machine-

interpretable certification details may be expressed using properties within the

gs1:CertificationDetails class of the GS1 Web Vocabulary

7.4.1.1 Explanation of eventTimeZoneOffset (Non-Normative)

The eventTimeZoneOffset field is not necessary to understand at what moment in time an event occurred. This is because the eventTime field is of

type

Time, defined in section 7.3 to be a “date and time in a time zone-independent manner.” For example, in the XML binding (section 9.5) the

eventTime field is represented as an element of type xsd:dateTimeStamp, and section 9.5 further stipulates that the XML must include a time zone

specifier. Therefore, the XML for eventTime unambiguously identifies a moment in absolute time, and it is not necessary to consult

eventTimeZoneOffset to understand what moment in time that is.

EPCIS Standard

The purpose of eventTimeZoneOffset is to provide additional business context about the event, namely to identify what time zone offset was in effect

at the time and place the event was captured. This information may be useful, for example, to determine whether an event took place during business

hours, to present the event to a human in a format consistent with local time, and so on. The local time zone offset information is not necessarily available

from

eventTime, because there is no requirement that the time zone specifier in the XML representation of eventTime be the local time zone offset

where the event was captured. For example, an event taking place at 8:00am US Eastern Standard Time could have an XML

eventTime field that is

written

08:00-05:00 (using US Eastern Standard Time), or 13:00Z (using UTC), or even 07:00-06:00 (using US Central Standard Time). Moreover,

XML processors are not required by [XSD2] to retain and present to applications the time zone specifier that was part of the

xsd:dateTimeStamp field,

and so the time zone specifier in the

eventTime field might not be available to applications at all. Similar considerations would apply for other (non-XML)

bindings of the Core Event Types module. For example, a hypothetical binary binding might represent

Time values as a millisecond offset relative to

midnight UTC on January 1, 1970 – again, unambiguously identifying a moment in absolute time, but not providing any information about the local time

zone. For these reasons,

eventTimeZoneOffset is provided as an additional event field.

7.4.1.2 ErrorDeclaration

When an event contains an

ErrorDeclaration element, it indicates that this event has special semantics: instead of the normal semantics which assert

that various things happened and that various things are true following the event, the semantics of this event assert that those prior assertions are in

error. An event containing an

ErrorDeclaration element SHALL be otherwise identical to a prior event, “otherwise identical” meaning that all fields of

the event other than the

ErrorDeclaration element and the value of recordTime are exactly equal to the prior event. (Note that includes the

eventID field: the eventID of the error declaration will be equal to the eventID of the prior event or null if the eventID of the prior event is null. This

is the sole case where the same non-null

eventID may appear in two events.) The semantics of an event containing the ErrorDeclaration element

are that all assertions implied by the prior event are considered to be erroneous, as of the specified

declarationTime. The prior event is not modified in

any way, and subsequent queries will return both the prior event and the error declaration.

ErrorDeclaration element contains the following fields:

Field Type Description

declarationTime xsd:dateTimeStamp

The date and time at which the declaration of error is made. (Note that the eventTime of this

event must match the

eventTime of the prior event being declared erroneous, so the

declarationTime

field is required to indicate the time at which this event is asserted.)

reason ErrorReasonID

(Optional) An element from a standard vocabulary that specifies the reason the prior event is

considered erroneous.

correctiveEventIDs List<EventID>

(Optional) If present, indicates that the events having the specified URIs as the value of their

eventID fields are to be considered as “corrections” to the event declared erroneous by this

event. This provides a means to link an error declaration event to one or more events that are

intended to replace the erroneous event.

An ErrorDeclaration element SHOULD NOT be used if there is a way to model the real-world situation as an ordinary event (that is, using an event

that does not contain an

ErrorDeclaration element).

EPCIS Standard

7.4.1.2.1 Use of error declarations (Non-Normative)

An EPCIS event records the completion of a step of a business process. A business process is modelled by breaking it down into a series of steps, and

modelling each as an EPCIS event. The net effect is that the collection of all events pertaining to a specific object (often referred to as a “trace”) should

correctly indicate the history and current state of that object, by interpreting the events according to the semantics specified in this standard and relevant

vocabulary standards.

Sometimes, it is discovered that an event recorded earlier does not accurately reflect what happened in the real world. In such cases, as noted in section

6.1

, earlier events are never deleted or modified. Instead, additional events are recorded whose effect is that the complete trace (including the new

events and all prior events including the incorrect event) accurately reflects the history and current state, as stated in the above principle.

The preferred way to arrive at the additional events is to recognise that the discovery of an erroneous event and its remediat

ion is itself a business

process which can be modelled by creating suitable EPCIS events. In most situations, this is done using EPCIS events from the Core Event Types Module

as specified in section 7.4, using suitable vocabulary.

Example 1: Company X records an EPCIS event asserting that serial numbers 101, 102, and 103 of some product were shipped to Company Y. Company

Y receives the shipment and finds serial number 104 in addition to serial numbers 101, 102, 103. In discussion with Company X, it is agreed that serial

104 was indeed shipped and that the shipping event was in error. Remediation: Company X records a new EPCIS event asserting that serial number 104

was shipped, with similar contextual information as the original event.

Example 2: Company X records an EPCIS event asserting that serial numbers 101, 102, and 103 of some product were shipped to Company Y. Company

Y receives the shipment and finds only serial numbers 101, 102. In discussion with Company X, it is agreed that serial 103 was not shipped but remains in

Company X's inventory. They agree to reverse the billing for the third product. Remediation: Company X records a new EPCIS event asserting that the

shipment of serial 103 is voided.

In the first example, the additional event uses the same business vocabulary as the first. In the second example, vocabulary specifically associated with

the process of voiding a shipment is used, but it is still “ordinary” EPCIS semantics in the sense that it models the completion of a well-defined business

process step. This reflects the reality that the act remediation is itself a business process, and so may be modelled as an EPCIS event.

In some situations, it either is not possible (or is highly undesirable) to remediate the history of an object by creating a new EPCIS event with ordinary

semantics (that is, with the semantics specified in section 7.4).

Example 3: Company X records an EPCIS event to assert that serial number 101 of product X was destroyed. This event is an Object Event as specified in

section 7.4.2 with action = DELETE. Later it is discovered that serial 101 is still in storage, not destroyed. An ordinary event cannot be used to amend the

history, because the semantics of action DELETE for an Object Event specify that “the objects … SHOULD NOT appear in subsequent events.”

Example 4: Company X records an EPCIS event asserting that several products have been shipped, indicating Purchase Order 123 as a business

transaction in the “why” dimension. Company Y receives the products and records a receiving event. Only then it is discovered that the purchase order

reference in the shipping event is wrong: it says PO 456 instead of 123. This could be remediated using ordinary EPCIS events by Company X recording a

“cancel shipment” event followed by a “shipping” event with the correct PO #. But this is rather undesirable from the perspective of the overall trace,

especially given that there is already a receiving event.

EPCIS Standard

To accommodate such situations, the Core Event Types Module provides a mechanism to assert that the assertions made by a prior event are in error.

These semantics may only be used when an event specifies exactly the same conditions as a prior ordinary event, so that the assertion of error can be

correlated to the prior event. Such an event is termed an “error declaration event.”

In Example 3 above, the error declaration event would imply that serial number 101 of product X was not destroyed. In Example 4 above, the error

declaration event would imply that a shipment with PO 123 as the context did not occur, and an additional event (the “corrective event”) would say that a

shipment with PO 456 did occur. This is rather similar to modelling Example 4 using a “cancel shipment” event, except that instead of asserting a

shipment was carried out under PO 123 then cancelled, the error declaration event simply asserts that the PO 123 assertion was erroneous.

An error declaration event is constructed by including an

ErrorDeclaration section. Specifically, given Event E1, an error declaration event E2 whose

effect is to declare the assertions of E1 to be in error is an event structure whose content is identical to E1, but with the

ErrorDeclaration element

included. For example, the error declaration for the "destroying" event in Example 3 is also an Object Event with action = DELETE, but with the

ErrorDeclaration element included. In general, to declare event E to be in error, a new event is recorded that is identical to event E except that the

ErrorDeclaration element is also included (and the record time will be different).

There are three reasons why error declaration events in EPCIS are expressed this way. One, an event ID is not required to indicate the erroneous event,

which in turn implies it is not necessary to include an event ID on every event to provide for possible error declaration in the future. Event IDs are

available to link an error declaration event to a corrective event, but it is never necessary to use event IDs. Two, any EPCIS query that matches an event

will also match an error declaration for that event, if it exists. This means that EPCIS Accessing Applications require no special logic to become aware of

error declarations, if they exist. Three, if an EPCIS Accessing Application receives an error declaration event and for some reason does not have a copy of

the original (erroneous) event, it is not necessary to retrieve the original event as every bit of information in that event is also present in the error

declaration event.

7.4.1.2.2 Matching an error declaration to the original event (non-normative)

As discussed in section 7.4.1.2

, an error declaration event has identical content to the original (erroneous) event, with the exception of the

ErrorDeclaration element itself and the record time. One of the benefits of this approach is that when an EPCIS Accessing Application encounters an

error declaration, it is not necessary to retrieve the original (erroneous) event, as all of the information in that event is also present in the error

declaration event which the EPCIS Accessing Application already has.

Nevertheless, there may be situations in which an EPCIS Accessing Application or EPCIS Capturing Application wishes to confirm the existence of the

original (erroneous) event by querying for it. The only way to recognise that an event is the original event matching an error declaration is to confirm that

all data elements in the events (save the

ErrorDeclaration element and record time) match. See [EPCISGuideline] for suggested approaches for

querying in this situation.

7.4.2 ObjectEvent (subclass of EPCISEvent)

An ObjectEvent captures information about an event pertaining to one or more physical or digital objects identified by instance-level (EPC) or class-level

(EPC Class) identifiers. Most

ObjectEvents are envisioned to represent actual observations of objects, but strictly speaking it can be used for any event

a Capturing Application wants to assert about objects, including for example capturing the fact that an expected observation failed to occur.

EPCIS Standard

While more than one EPC and/or EPC Class may appear in an ObjectEvent, no relationship or association between those objects is implied other than

the coincidence of having experienced identical events in the real world.

The

action field of an ObjectEvent describes the event’s relationship to the lifecycle of the objects and their identifiers named in the event.

Specifically:

action

value

Meaning

ADD

The objects identified in the event have been commissioned as part of this event. For objects identified by EPCs (instance-level identifiers), the EPC(s) have

been issued and associated with an object (s) for the first time. For objects identified by EPC Classes (class-level identifiers), the specified quantities of EPC

Classes identified in the event have been created (though other instances of those same classes may have existed prior this event, and additional instances

may be created subsequent to this event).

OBSERVE

The event represents a simple observation of the objects identified in the event, not their commissioning or decommissioning.

DELETE

The objects identified in the event have been decommissioned as part of this event. For objects identified by EPCs (instance-level identifiers), the EPC(s) do

not exist subsequent to the event and SHOULD NOT be observed again. For objects identified by EPC Classes (class-level identifiers), the specified quantities

of EPC Classes identified in the event have ceased to exist (though other instances of those same classes may continue to exist subsequent to this event,

and additional instances may be have ceased to exist prior this event).

An ObjectEvent has the following fields:

Field Type Description

eventTime

recordTime

eventTimeZoneOffset

(Inherited from EPCISEvent; see section 7.4.1)

epcList List<EPC>

(Optional) An unordered list of one or more EPCs naming specific

objects to which the event pertained. See section 7.3.3.2

An ObjectEvent SHALL contain either a non-empty epcList, a non-

empty

quantityList, or both. The only permissible exception is if

the object of observation is a physical location – in this case, the

ObjectEvent SHALL contain a

sensorElement and a non-empty

readPoint

populated with a physical location ID.

quantityList List<QuantityElement>

(Optional) An unordered list of one or more QuantityElements

identifying (at the class level) objects to which the event pertained.

An ObjectEvent SHALL contain either a non-empty epcList, a non-

empty

quantityList, or both. The only permissible exception is if

the object of observation is a physical location – in this case, the

ObjectEvent SHALL contain a

sensorElement and a non-empty

readPoint

populated with a physical location ID.

EPCIS Standard

Field Type Description

Action Action

How this event relates to the lifecycle of the EPCs named in this event.

See above for more detail.

bizStep

BusinessStepID

(Optional) The business step of which this event was a part.

disposition DispositionID (Optional) The business condition of the objects, in the epcList and

quantityList, presumed to hold true until contradicted by a

subsequent event.

persistentDisposition PersistentDisposition

(Optional) One or more business conditions of the objects, in the

epcList and quantityList.

Each persistentDisposition is explicitly set and unset independently of

other persistentDisposition values. The set field within

persistentDisposition may specify a list of persistentDisposition

URI values to be set. The unset field within persistentDisposition

may specify a list of persistentDisposition URI values to be unset

(revoked).

set DispositionID

(Optional, multivalued)

If used in

PersistentDisposition, specifies Disposition

(

cbv:Disp) values to be set "persistently", i.e., until they are

explicitly

unset.

unset DispositionID

(Optional, multivalued)

If used in

PersistentDisposition, specifies Disposition

(

cbv:Disp) values to be unset "persistently", i.e., until they are

explicitly

set.

readPoint

ReadPointID

(Optional) The read point at which the event took place.

bizLocation BusinessLocationID

(Optional) The business location where the objects associated with the

EPCs may be found, until contradicted by a subsequent event.

bizTransactionList

Unordered list of zero or more

BusinessTransaction

instances

(Optional) An unordered list of business transactions that define the

context of this event.

EPCIS Standard

Field Type Description

sourceList List<Source> (Optional) An unordered list of Source elements (section 7.3.6.4)

that provide context about the originating endpoint of a business

transfer of which this event is a part.

destinationList List<Destination> (Optional) An unordered list of Destination elements (section

7.3.6.4

) that provide context about the terminating endpoint of a

business transfer of which this event is a part.

ilmd ILMD

(Optional) Instance/Lot master data (section 7.3.8) that describes the

objects created during this event.

An ObjectEvent SHALL NOT contain ilmd if action is OBSERVE

DELETE.

sensorElementList List<sensorElement>

(Optional) An unordered list of one or more sensorElements (section

7.3.7

Note that in the XML binding (section 9.3), quantityList, sourceList, destinationList, ilmd and sensorElementList appear in the standard

extension area, to maintain backward-compatibility with EPCIS 1.0, 1.1 and 1.2.

Retrospective semantics:

■ An event described by bizStep (and any other fields) took place with respect to the objects identified by epcList and quantityList at

eventTime at location readPoint.

■ (If action is ADD) The EPCs in epcList were commissioned (issued for the first time).

■ (If action is ADD) The specified quantities of EPC Class instances in quantityList were created (or an unknown quantity, for each

QuantityElement in which the quantity value is omitted).

■ (If action is DELETE) The EPCs in epcList were decommissioned (retired from future use).

■ (If

action is DELETE) The specified quantities of EPC Class instances in quantityList ceased to exist (or an unknown quantity, for each

QuantityElement in which the quantity value is omitted).

■ (If

action is ADD and a non-empty bizTransactionList is specified) An association exists between the business transactions enumerated in

bizTransactionList and the objects identified in epcList and quantityList.

■ (If action is OBSERVE and a non-empty bizTransactionList is specified) This event took place within the context of the business transactions

enumerated in

bizTransactionList.

■ (If action is DELETE and a non-empty bizTransactionList is specified) This event took place within the context of the business transactions

enumerated in

bizTransactionList.

EPCIS Standard

■ (If sourceList is non-empty) This event took place within the context of a business transfer whose originating endpoint is described by the sources

enumerated in

sourceList.

■ (If

destinationList is non-empty) This event took place within the context of a business transfer whose terminating endpoint is described by the

destinations enumerated in

destinationList.

■ (If sensorElementList is non-empty) This event took place in the context of the sensor observation specified in the sensorElementList at time

or during startTime and endTime (or at eventTime when time, startTime and endTime are omitted). All values pertain to the objects

identified by

epcList and quantityList (or the physical location indicated in the readPoint when both epcList and quantityList are

omitted).

Prospective semantics:

■ (If

action is ADD) The objects identified by the instance-level identifiers in epcList may appear in subsequent events.

■ (If action is ADD) The objects identified by the class-level identifiers in quantityList may appear in subsequent events.

■ (If

action is DELETE) The objects identified by the instance-level identifiers in epcList SHOULD NOT appear in subsequent events.

■ (If action is DELETE) The total population of objects identified by the class-level identifiers in quantityList that may appear in subsequent events

has been reduced by the quantities specified in

quantityList (or by an unknown quantity, for each QuantityElement in which the quantity

value is omitted).

■ (If

disposition is specified) The business condition of the objects identified by epcList and quantityList is as described by disposition.

■ (If

disposition is omitted) The business condition of the objects identified by epcList and quantityList is unchanged.

■ (If a specific persistentDisposition is specified as set) The persistent business condition(s) of the objects identified by epcList and

quantityList is as set by persistentDisposition.

■ (If persistentDisposition is omitted) The persistent business condition(s) of the objects identified by epcList and quantityList as previously

set or unset by

persistentDisposition is unchanged.

■ (If a specific

persistentDisposition value is specified as unset) The specific persistent business condition of the objects identified by epcList

and

quantityList is unset (i.e., revoked).

■ (If

bizLocation is specified) The objects identified by epcList and quantityList are at business location bizLocation.

■ (If bizLocation is omitted) The business location of the objects identified by epcList and quantityList might be unknown, unless the business

location can be inferred from previous events.

■ (If

action is ADD and ilmd is non-empty) The objects identified by epcList and quantityList are described by the attributes in ilmd.

EPCIS Standard

■ (If action is ADD and a non-empty bizTransactionList is specified) An association exists between the business transactions enumerated in

bizTransactionList and the objects identified in epcList and quantityList.

Non-Normative: Explanation: In the case where action is ADD and a non-empty bizTransactionList is specified, the semantic effect is

equivalent to having an ObjectEvent with no

bizTransactionList together with a TransactionEvent having the bizTransactionList and all

the same field values as the ObjectEvent. Note, however, that an ObjectEvent with a non-empty

bizTransactionList does not cause a

TransactionEvent to be returned from a query.

7.4.3 AggregationEvent (subclass of EPCISEvent)

The event type AggregationEvent describes events that apply to objects that have been aggregated to one another. In such an event, there is a set of

“contained” objects that have been aggregated within a “containing” entity that’s meant to identify the aggregation itself.

This event type is intended to be used for “aggregations,” in which there is a strong physical relationship between the containing and the contained

objects such that they will all occupy the same location at the same time, until such time as they are disaggregated. An example of an aggregation is

where cases are loaded onto a pallet and carried as a unit. The

AggregationEvent type is not intended for weaker relationships such as two pallets that

are part of the same shipment, but where the pallets might not always be in exactly the same place at the same time. (The

TransactionEvent may be

appropriate for such circumstances.) More specific semantics may be specified depending on the Business Step.

The

Action field of an AggregationEvent describes the event’s relationship to the lifecycle of the aggregation. Specifically:

Action

value

Meaning

ADD

The objects identified in the child list have been aggregated to the parent during this event. This includes situations where the aggregation is created for the

first time, as well as when new children are added to an existing aggregate.

OBSERVE

The event represents neither adding nor removing children from the aggregation. The observation may be incomplete: there may be children that are part of

the aggregation but not observed during this event and therefore not included in the

childEPCs or childQuantityList field of the

AggregationEvent; likewise, the parent identity may not be observed or known during this event and therefore the parentID field be omitted from

the

AggregationEvent

DELETE

The objects identified in the child list have been disaggregated from the parent during this event. This includes situations where a subset of children are

removed from the aggregation, as well as when the entire aggregation is dismantled. Both

childEPCs and childQuantityList field may be omitted

from the

AggregationEvent, which means that all children have been disaggregated. (This permits disaggregation when the event capture software

does not know the identities of all the children.)

The AggregationEvent type includes fields that refer to a single “parent” (often a “containing” entity) and one or more “children” (often “contained”

objects). A parent identifier is required when

action is ADD or DELETE, but optional when action is OBSERVE.

EPCIS Standard

Non-Normative: Explanation: A parent identifier is used when action is ADD so that there is a way of referring to the aggregation in subsequent

events when

action is DELETE. The parent identifier is optional when action is OBSERVE because the parent is not always known during an

intermediate observation. For example, a pallet receiving process may rely on RFID tags to determine the EPCs of cases on the pallet, but there

might not be an RFID tag for the pallet (or if there is one, it may be unreadable).

The

AggregationEvent is intended to indicate aggregations among objects, and so the children are identified by EPCs and/or EPC classes. The parent

entity, however, is not necessarily a physical or digital object separate from the aggregation itself, and so the parent is identified by an arbitrary URI,

which MAY be an EPC, but MAY be another identifier drawn from a suitable private vocabulary.

Non-Normative: Explanation: In many manufacturing operations, for example, it is common to create a load several steps before an EPC for the

load is assigned. In such situations, an internal tracking number (often referred to as a “license plate number,” or LPN) is assigned at the time the

load is created, and this is used up to the point of shipment. At the point of shipment, an SSCC code (which is an EPC) is assigned. In EPCIS, this

would be modelled by (a) an

AggregationEvent with action equal to ADD at the time the load is created, (b) an invalidation of the first

association via an

AggregationEvent with action equal to DELETE when the SSCC is ready to be assigned, and (c) a second

AggregationEvent with action equal to ADD at the time the SSCC is assigned. During (a) and (b), the LPN would be the parent identifier

(expressed in a suitable URI representation; see section 6.4), while the AggregationEvent during (c) would use the SSCC (which is a type of

EPC) as the parent identifier, thereby changing the parentID.

An additional example comes from logistics operations where heterogenous sets of items are often assembled together for shipping efficiencies.

Commonly, order fulfillments to retail locations from distribution centers require a wider variety of items but in smaller quantities. The items

combined for transportation is a logistics unit and is assigned an SSCC as the assembly is completed. In EPCIS, this would be modelled by

an AggregationEvent with action equal to ADD at the time the unit is assembled. Suppose the unit was assembled, initially, to be shipped by truck

but later determined that parcel shipping was necessary to meet timing constraints of the order. In this situation,

an AggregationEvent with action equal to DELETE is needed to reflect the items have been disassembled. These two events would be followed by

an AggregationEvent with action equal to ADD with a new SSCC for each parcel and containing items.

AggregationEvent has the following fields:

Field Type Description

eventTime

recordTime

eventTimeZoneOffset

(Inherited from EPCISEvent; see section 7.4.1)

EPCIS Standard

Field Type Description

parentID URI

(Optional when action is OBSERVE, required

otherwise) The identifier of the parent object of

the aggregation. When the parent identifier is an

EPC, this field SHALL contain the “pure identity”

URI for the EPC as specified in [TDS].

childEPCs List<EPC>

(Optional) An unordered list of the EPCs of

contained objects identified by instance-level

identifiers. See section 8.2 of the CBV.

An AggregationEvent SHALL contain either a non-

empty

childEPCs, a non-empty

childQuantityList, or both, except that

both

childEPCs and childQuantityList

MAY be empty if

action is DELETE, indicating

that all children are disaggregated from the

parent.

childQuantityList List<QuantityElement>

(Optional) An unordered list of one or more

QuantityElements identifying (at the class level)

contained objects. See section 8.3 of the CBV.

An AggregationEvent SHALL contain either a non-

empty

childEPCs, a non-empty

childQuantityList, or both, except that

both

childEPCs and childQuantityList

MAY be empty if

action is DELETE, indicating

that all children are disaggregated from the

parent.

action Action

How this event relates to the lifecycle of the

aggregation named in this event. See above for

more detail.

bizStep BusinessStepID

(Optional) The business step of which this event

was a part.

disposition DispositionID

(Optional) The business condition of the objects,

in the

parentID, childEPCs and

childQuantityList, presumed to hold true

until contradicted by a subsequent event.

readPoint ReadPointID

(Optional) The read point at which the event took

place.

EPCIS Standard

Field Type Description

bizLocation BusinessLocationID

(Optional) The business location where the

aggregated objects, in the

parentID,

childEPCs and childQuantityList, may

be found, until contradicted by a subsequent

event.

bizTransactionList

Unordered list of zero or more

BusinessTransaction

instances

(Optional) An unordered list of business

transactions that define the context of this event.

sourceList List<Source> (Optional) An unordered list of Source elements

(section 7.3.6.4

) that provide context about the

originating endpoint of a business transfer of

which this event is a part.

destinationList List<Destination> (Optional) An unordered list of Destination

elements (section 7.3.6.4

) that provide context

about the terminating endpoint of a business

transfer of which this event is a part.

sensorElementList List<sensorElement>

(Optional) An unordered list of one or more

sensorElement

s (section 7.3.7).

Note that in the XML binding (section 9.3), childQuantityList, sourceList, destinationList and sensorElementList appear in the standard

extension area, to maintain backward-compatibility with EPCIS 1.0, 1.1 and 1.2.

Retrospective semantics:

■ An event described by bizStep (and any other fields) took place involving containing entity parentID and the contained objects in childEPCs and

childQuantityList, at eventTime and location readPoint.

■ (If

action is ADD) The objects identified in childEPCs and childQuantityList were aggregated to containing entity parentID.

■ (If action is DELETE and childEPCs or childQuantityList is non-empty) The objects identified in childEPCs and childQuantityList were

disaggregated from

parentID.

■ (If action is DELETE and both childEPCs and childQuantityList are empty) All contained objects have been disaggregated from containing

entity

parentID.

■ (If

action is ADD and a non-empty bizTransactionList is specified) An aggregation exists between the business transactions enumerated in

bizTransactionList, the objects identified in childEPCs and childQuantityList, and containing entity parentID.

EPCIS Standard

■ (If action is OBSERVE and a non-empty bizTransactionList is specified) This event took place within the context of the business transactions

enumerated in

bizTransactionList.

■ (If

action is DELETE and a non-empty bizTransactionList is specified) This event took place within the context of the business transactions

enumerated in

bizTransactionList.

■ (If sourceList is non-empty) This event took place within the context of a business transfer whose originating endpoint is described by the sources

enumerated in

sourceList.

■ (If destinationList is non-empty) This event took place within the context of a business transfer whose terminating endpoint is described by the

destinations enumerated in

destinationList.

Prospective semantics:

■ (If

action is ADD) An aggregation exists between containing entity parentID and the contained objects in childEPCs and childQuantityList.

■ (If

action is DELETE and childEPCs or childQuantityList is non-empty) An aggregation no longer exists between containing entity parentID

and the contained objects identified in

childEPCs and childQuantityList.

■ (If

action is DELETE and both childEPCs and childQuantityList are empty) An aggregation no longer exists between containing entity

parentID and any contained objects.

■ (If disposition is specified) The business condition of the objects aggregated with the objects identified in parentID, childEPCs, and

childQuantityList is as described by disposition.

■ (If disposition is omitted) The business condition of the objects aggregated with the objects in parentID, childEPCs, and childQuantityList

is unchanged.

■ (If

bizLocation is specified) The objects aggregated with the objects in parentID, childEPCs, and childQuantityList are at business location

bizLocation.

■ (If

bizLocation is omitted) The business location of the objects aggregated with the objects in parentID, childEPCs, and childQuantityList

might be unknown, unless the business location can be inferred from previous events.

■ (If

action is ADD and a non-empty bizTransactionList is specified) An aggregation exists between the business transactions enumerated in

bizTransactionList, the objects in childEPCs and childQuantityList, and containing entity parentID (if specified).

Non-Normative: Explanation: In the case where action is ADD and a non-empty bizTransactionList is specified, the semantic effect is

equivalent to having an AggregationEvent with no

bizTransactionList together with a TransactionEvent having the bizTransactionList and

all same field values as the AggregationEvent. Note, however, that an AggregationEvent with a non-empty

bizTransactionList does not cause a

TransactionEvent to be returned from a query.

EPCIS Standard

Non-Normative: Note: Many semantically invalid situations can be expressed with incorrect use of aggregation. For example, the same objects

may be given multiple parents during the same time period by distinct ADD operations without an intervening Delete. Similarly, an object can be

specified to be a child of its grand-parent or even of itself. A non-existent aggregation may be DELETED. These situations cannot be detected

syntactically and in general an individual EPCIS repository may not have sufficient information to detect them. Thus, this specification does not

address these error conditions.

7.4.4 TransactionEvent (subclass of EPCISEvent)

The event type TransactionEvent describes the association or disassociation of physical or digital objects to one or more business transactions. While

other event types have an optional

bizTransactionList field that may be used to provide context for an event, the TransactionEvent is used to

declare in an unequivocal way that certain objects have been associated or disassociated with one or more business transactions as part of the event.

The

action field of a TransactionEvent describes the event’s relationship to the lifecycle of the transaction. Specifically:

Action

value

Meaning

ADD

The objects identified in the event have been associated to the business transaction(s) during this event. This includes situations where the transaction(s) is

created for the first time, as well as when new objects are added to an existing transaction(s).

OBSERVE

The objects named in the event have been confirmed as continuing to be associated to the business transaction(s) during this event.

Explanation (non-normative): A TransactionEvent with action OBSERVE is quite similar to an ObjectEvent that includes a non-empty

bizTransactionList field. When an end user group agrees to use both kinds of events, the group should clearly define when each should be used.

An example where a TransactionEvent with action OBSERVE might be appropriate is an international shipment with transaction ID xxx moving

through a port, and there’s a desire to record the EPCs that were observed at that point in handling that transaction. Subsequent queries will

concentrate on querying the transaction ID to find the EPCs, not on the EPCs to find the transaction ID.

DELETE

The objects named in the event have been disassociated from the business transaction(s) during this event. This includes situations where a subset of

objects are disassociated from the business transaction(s), as well as when the entire business transaction(s) has ended. As a convenience, both the list of

EPCs and

QuantityElement

s may be omitted from the

TransactionEvent

, which means that all objects have been disassociated.

A TransactionEvent has the following fields:

Field Type Description

eventTime

recordTime

eventTimeZoneOffset

(Inherited from EPCISEvent; see section 7.4.1)

EPCIS Standard

Field Type Description

bizTransactionList

Unordered list of one or more

BusinessTransaction

instances

The business transaction(s).

parentID URI

(Optional) The identifier of the parent

object of objects listed in

epcList

and

quantityList, if these fields

are present. When the parent identifier

is an EPC, this field SHALL contain the

“pure identity” URI for the EPC as

specified in [TDS]. See also the note

following the table.

epcList List<EPC>

(Optional) An unordered list of the EPCs

of the objects identified by instance-

level identifiers associated with the

business transaction. See section 8.2 of

the CBV.

A TransactionEvent SHALL contain

either a non-empty

epcList, a non-

empty

quantityList, or both,

except that both

epcList and

quantityList MAY be empty if

action is DELETE, indicating that all

the objects are disassociated from the

business transaction(s).

quantityList List<QuantityElement>

(Optional) An unordered list of one or

more QuantityElements identifying

objects (at the class level) to which the

event pertained.

A TransactionEvent SHALL contain

either a non-empty

epcList, a non-

empty

quantityList, or both,

except that both

epcList and

quantityList MAY be empty if

action is DELETE, indicating that all

the objects are disassociated from the

business transaction(s).

EPCIS Standard

Field Type Description

action Action

How this event relates to the lifecycle of

the business transaction named in this

event. See above for more detail.

bizStep BusinessStepID

(Optional) The business step of which

this event was a part.

disposition DispositionID

(Optional) The business condition of the

objects, in the

epcList and

quantityList, presumed to hold

true until contradicted by a subsequent

event.

readPoint ReadPointID

(Optional) The read point at which the

event took place.

bizLocation BusinessLocationID

(Optional) The business location where

the objects associated with the

containing and contained objects may

be found, until contradicted by a

subsequent event.

sourceList List<Source> (Optional) An unordered list of Source

elements (section 7.3.6.4

) that provide

context about the originating endpoint

of a business transfer of which this

event is a part.

destinationList List<Destination>

(Optional) An unordered list of

Destination elements (section

7.3.6.4

) that provide context about the

terminating endpoint of a business

transfer of which this event is a part.

sensorElementList List<sensorElement>

(Optional) An unordered list of one or

sensorElements (section

7.3.7

Note that in the XML binding (section 9.3), quantityList, sourceList, destinationList and sensorElementList appear in the standard

extension area, to maintain backward-compatibility with EPCIS 1.0, 1.1 and 1.2.

Non-Normative: Explanation: The use of the field name parentID in both TransactionEvent and AggregationEvent (section 7.2.10) does

not indicate a similarity in function or semantics. In general, a TransactionEvent carries the same object identification information as an

EPCIS Standard

ObjectEvent, that is, a list of EPCs and/or QuantityElements. All the other information fields (bizTransactionList, bizStep,

bizLocation, etc) apply equally and uniformly to all objects specified, whether or not the objects are specified in just the epcList and

quantityList field or if the optional parentID field is also supplied.

Non-Normative: The TransactionEvent provides a way to describe the association or disassociation of business transactions to objects. The

parentID field in the TransactionEvent highlights a specific EPC or other identifier as the preferred or primary object but does not imply a

physical relationship of any kind, nor is any kind of nesting or inheritance implied by the

TransactionEvent itself. Only AggregationEvent

instances describe actual parent-child relationships and nestable parent-child relationships. This can be seen by comparing the semantics of

AggregationEvent in section 7.2.10 with the semantics of TransactionEvent below.

Retrospective semantics:

■ An event described by bizStep (and any other fields) took place involving the business transactions enumerated in bizTransactionList, the

objects in

epcList and quantityList, and containing entity parentID (if specified), at eventTime and location readPoint.

■ (If action is ADD) The objects in epcList and quantityList and containing entity parentID (if specified) were associated to the business

transactions enumerated in

bizTransactionList.

■ (If

action is DELETE and epcList or quantityList is non-empty) The objects in epcList, quantityList, and containing entity parentID (if

specified) were disassociated from the business transactions enumerated in

bizTransactionList.

■ (If

action is DELETE, both epcList and quantityList are empty, and parentID is omitted) All objects have been disassociated from the

business transactions enumerated in

bizTransactionList.

■ (If

sourceList is non-empty) This event took place within the context of a business transfer whose originating endpoint is described by the sources

enumerated in

sourceList.

■ (If destinationList is non-empty) This event took place within the context of a business transfer whose terminating endpoint is described by the

destinations enumerated in

destinationList.

Prospective semantics:

■ (If action is ADD) An association exists between the business transactions enumerated in bizTransactionList, the objects in epcList and

quantityList, and containing entity parentID (if specified).

■ (If action is DELETE and epcList or quantityList is non-empty) An association no longer exists between the business transactions enumerated

bizTransactionList, the objects in epcList and quantityList, and containing entity parentID (if specified).

■ (If action is DELETE, both epcList and quantityList are empty, and parentID is omitted) An association no longer exists between the

business transactions enumerated in

bizTransactionList and any objects.

EPCIS Standard

■ (If disposition is specified) The business condition of the objects associated with the objects in epcList and quantityList and containing entity

parentID (if specified) is as described by disposition.

■ (If

disposition is omitted) The business condition of the objects associated with the objects in epcList and quantityList and containing entity

parentID (if specified) is unchanged.

■ (If bizLocation is specified) The objects associated with the objects in epcList, quantityList, and containing entity parentID (if specified) are

at business location

bizLocation.

■ (If bizLocation is omitted) The business location of the objects associated with the objects in epcList and quantityList and containing entity

parentID (if specified) might be unknown, unless the business location can be inferred from previous events.

EPCIS Standard

7.4.5 TransformationEvent (subclass of EPCISEvent)

A TransformationEvent captures information about an event in which one or more physical or digital objects identified by instance-level (EPC) or class-

level (EPC Class) identifiers are fully or partially consumed as inputs and one or more objects identified by instance-level (EPC) or class-level (EPC Class)

identifiers are produced as outputs. The

TransformationEvent captures the relationship between the inputs and the outputs, such that any of the

inputs may have contributed in some way to each of the outputs.

Some transformation business processes take place over a long period of time, and so it is more appropriate to represent them as a series of EPCIS

events. A

transformationID may be included in two or more TransformationEvents to link them together. When events share an identical

transformationID, the meaning is that the inputs to any of those events may have contributed in some way to each of the outputs in any of those

same events.

Fields:

Field Type Description

eventTime

recordTime

eventTimeZoneOffset

(Inherited from EPCISEvent; see section 7.4.1)

inputEPCList List<EPC>

(Optional) An unordered list of one or more EPCs identifying (at the

instance level) objects that were inputs to the transformation..

inputQuantityList List<QuantityElement>

(Optional) An unordered list of one or more QuantityElements

identifying (at the class level) objects that were inputs to the

transformation.

outputEPCList List<EPC>

(Optional) An unordered list of one or more EPCs naming (at the

instance level) objects that were outputs from the transformation.

outputQuantityList List<QuantityElement> (Optional) An unordered list of one or more QuantityElements

identifying (at the class level) objects that were outputs from the

transformation.

transformationID TransformationID

(Optional) A unique identifier that links this event to other

TransformationEvents having an identical value of

transformationID. When specified, all inputs to all events

sharing the same value of the

transformationID may

contribute to all outputs of all events sharing that value of

transformationID. If transformationID is omitted, then

the inputs of this event may contribute to the outputs of this event,

but the inputs and outputs of other events are not connected to

this one.

bizStep

BusinessStepID

(Optional) The business step of which this event was a part.

EPCIS Standard

Field Type Description

disposition DispositionID

(Optional) The business condition of the objects, in the

outputEPCList and outputQuantityList, presumed to

hold true until contradicted by a subsequent event.

persistentDisposition PersistentDisposition

(Optional) One or more business conditions of the objects, in the

outputEPCList and outputQuantityList.

Each persistentDisposition is explicitly set and unset

independently of other persistentDisposition values. The set

field within persistentDisposition may specify a list of

persistentDisposition URI values to be set. The unset field

within persistentDisposition may specify a list of

persistentDisposition

URI values to be unset (revoked).

set DispositionID

(Optional, multivalued)

If used in

PersistentDisposition, specifies

Disposition (cbv:Disp) values to be set "persistently",

i.e., until they are explicitly

unset.

unset DispositionID

(Optional, multivalued)

If used in

PersistentDisposition, specifies

Disposition (cbv:Disp) values to be unset

"persistently", i.e., until they are explicitly

set.

readPoint

ReadPointID

(Optional) The read point at which the event took place.

bizLocation BusinessLocationID

(Optional) The business location where the output objects of this

event may be found, until contradicted by a subsequent event.

bizTransactionList

Unordered list of zero or more

BusinessTransaction

instances

(Optional) An unordered list of business transactions that define

the context of this event.

sourceList List<Source> (Optional) An unordered list of Source elements (section 7.3.6.4)

that provide context about the originating endpoint of a business

transfer of which this event is a part.

destinationList List<Destination> (Optional) An unordered list of Destination elements (section

7.3.6.4

) that provide context about the terminating endpoint of a

business transfer of which this event is a part.

EPCIS Standard

Field Type Description

ilmd ILMD

(Optional) Instance/Lot master data (section 7.3.8) that describes

the output objects created during this event.

sensorElementList List<sensorElement>

(Optional) An unordered list of one or more

sensorElement

s (section 7.3.7).

Note that in the XML binding (section 9.3), sensorElementList appears in the standard extension area, to maintain backward-compatibility with EPCIS

1.2.

If transformationID is omitted, then a TransformationEvent SHALL include at least one input (i.e., at least one of inputEPCList and

inputQuantityList are non-empty) AND at least one output (i.e., at least one of outputEPCList and outputQuantityList are non-empty). If

transformationID is included, then a TransformationEvent SHALL include at least one input OR at least one output (or both). The latter provides

for the possibility that in a transformation described by several events linked by a common

transformationID, any one event might only add inputs or

extract outputs.

Retrospective semantics:

■ A transformation described by

bizStep (and any other fields) took place with input objects identified by inputEPCList and inputQuantityList

and output objects identified by

outputEPCList and outputQuantityList, at eventTime at location readPoint.

■ This event took place within the context of the business transactions enumerated in bizTransactionList.

■ (If

transformationID is omitted) Any of the input objects identified by inputEPCList and inputQuantityList of this event may have

contributed to each of the output objects identified by

outputEPCList and outputQuantityList of this event.

■ (If transformationID is included) Any of the input objects identified by inputEPCList and inputQuantityList of this event, together with the

input objects identified by

inputEPCList and inputQuantityList of other events having the same value of transformationID, may have

contributed to each of the output objects identified by

outputEPCList and outputQuantityList of this event, as well as to each of the output

objects identified by

outputEPCList and outputQuantityList of other events having the same value of transformationID.

■ (If sourceList is non-empty) This event took place within the context of a business transfer whose originating endpoint is described by the sources

enumerated in

sourceList.

■ (If destinationList is non-empty) This event took place within the context of a business transfer whose terminating endpoint is described by the

destinations enumerated in

destinationList.

Prospective semantics:

■ The objects identified by the instance-level identifiers in

outputEPCList may appear in subsequent events.

■ The objects identified by the class-level identifiers in outputQuantityList may appear in subsequent events.

EPCIS Standard

■ (If disposition is specified) The business condition of the objects identified by outputEPCList and outputQuantityList is as described by

disposition.

■ (If

disposition is omitted) The business condition of the objects associated with identified by outputEPCList and outputQuantityList is

unknown.

■ (If a specific

persistentDisposition is specified as set) The persistent business condition(s) of the objects identified by outputEPCList and

outputQuantityList is as set by persistentDisposition.

■ (If persistentDisposition is omitted) The persistent business condition(s) of the objects identified by outputEPCList and

outputQuantityList as previously set or unset by persistentDisposition is unchanged.

■ (If a specific

persistentDisposition value is specified as unset) The specific persistent business condition of the objects identified by

outputEPCList and outputQuantityList is unset (i.e., revoked).

■ (If

bizLocation is specified) The objects identified by outputEPCList and outputQuantityList are at business location bizLocation.

■ (If bizLocation is omitted) The business location of the objects identified by outputEPCList and outputQuantityList might be unknown,

unless the business location can be inferred from previous events.

■ (If

ilmd is non-empty) The objects identified by outputEPCList and outputQuantityList are described by the attributes in ilmd.

7.4.6 AssociationEvent (subclass of EPCISEvent)

The event type AssociationEvent describes the association or disassociation of one or several physical objects with a parent object or a specific

physical location.

Like the

AggregationEvent, the AssociationEvent is also used to capture associations where there is a strong physical relationship between the

containing and the contained objects such that they will all occupy the same location at the same time, until such time as they are disaggregated.

However, the AggregationEvent does not allow for associations of objects with physical locations; if action is DELETE while omitting the childEPC

and childQuantityList field, all contained children are disaggregated from the containing parent.

Because there are situations in which associations are more permanent, i.e. beyond the physical flow of goods (e.g. packing/unpacking and

loading/unloading), an

AssociationEvent SHOULD be used: (a) when objects need to be associated with a physical location or (b) when the parent

object could also be subject to other, more temporary associations (i.e. captured with

AggregationEvents).

EPCIS Standard

Non-Normative: Explanation on why the AssociationEvent is required:

Assume that an AggregationEvent is used to capture the construction of a

wagon or the installation of sensors into a reusable conveyance (RTI). Later on,

the identifiers of these units also appear in other

AggregationEvents,

documenting the physical flow of goods (e.g. pallets are loaded onto a lorry,

maritime containers are loaded on a ship, or vegetables are packed into a

plastic transport box). If an organisation captures an

AggregationEvent with

action DELETE while not indicating any of the aggregated children, it would

mean that ALL children ever aggregated to that parent ID are no longer

aggregated to it – i.e. not just the pallets, the maritime containers or the

vegetables, but also all assemblies, screws, tyres, sensors, etc. used to assemble

those parent units. Use of an

AssociationEvent for construction/installation

processes removes the ambiguity, allowing an accessing application to infer which

children are inherent parts and which of them are only temporary parts of the

association with the parent object.

Association

Event

(ADD)

assembling

Aggregation

Event

(ADD)

Aggregation

Event

(DELETE)

unloading

Association

Event

(DELETE)

removing

Association

Event

(ADD)

installing

EPCIS Standard

The three examples to the right illustrate the respective applicability of the AggregationEvent and the AssociationEvent in common business

process flows:

The

AssociationEvent SHALL be the only event type in which it is permissible to

populate the

parentID field with a location ID (for instance, a GLN with or without

extension).

The

action field of an AssociationEvent describes the event’s relationship to the

lifecycle of the association. Specifically:

Action

value

Meaning

ADD

The objects identified in the child list have been associated to the parent during this event. This includes situations where the association is created for the

first time, as well as when new children are added to an existing association.

OBSERVE

The event represents neither adding nor removing children from the association. The observation may be incomplete: there may be children that are part of

the association but not observed during this event and therefore not included in the

childEPCs or childQuantityList field of the

AssociationEvent; likewise, the parent identity may not be observed or known during this event and therefore the parentID field be omitted from

the

AssociationEvent

DELETE

The objects identified in the child list have been disassociated from the parent during this event. This includes situations where a subset of children are

removed from the association, as well as when the entire association is dismantled. Both

childEPCs and childQuantityList field may be omitted

from the

AssociationEvent, which means that all children have been disassociated. (This permits disassociation when the event capture software does

not know the identities of all the children.)

The AssociationEvent type includes fields that refer to a single “parent” (often a “containing” entity) and one or more “children” (often “contained”

objects). A parent identifier is required when

action is ADD or DELETE, but optional when action is OBSERVE.

Non-Normative: Explanation: A parent identifier is used when action is ADD so that there is a way of referring to the association in subsequent

events when

action is DELETE. The parent identifier is optional when action is OBSERVE because the parent is not always known during an

intermediate observation.

Association

Event

(ADD)

installing

EPCIS Standard

An AssociationEvent has the following fields:

Field Type Description

eventTime

recordTime

eventTimeZoneOffset

(Inherited from EPCISEvent; see section 7.3.)

parentID URI

The identifier of the parent object or parent location of the association. When the parent identifier is

an EPC, this field SHALL contain the “pure identity” URI for the EPC as specified in [TDS].

childEPCs List<EPC>

(Optional) An unordered list of the EPCs of contained objects identified by instance-level identifiers.

An AssociationEvent SHALL contain either a non-empty childEPCs, a non-empty

childQuantityList, or both, except that both childEPCs and childQuantityList

MAY be empty if

action

DELETE

, indicating that all children are disassociated from the parent.

childQuantityList List<QuantityElement>

(Optional) An unordered list of one or more QuantityElements identifying (at the class level)

contained objects. See section 7.3.3.1

An AssociationEvent SHALL contain either a non-empty childEPCs, a non-empty

childQuantityList, or both, except that both childEPCs and childQuantityList

MAY be empty if

action is DELETE, indicating that all children are disaggregated from the

parent.

action Action

How this event relates to the lifecycle of the association named in this event. See above for more

detail.

bizStep

BusinessStepID

(Optional) The business step of which this event was a part.

disposition DispositionID (Optional) The business condition of the object, in the parentID, childEPCs and

childQuantityList

, presumed to hold true until contradicted by a subsequent event.

readPoint

ReadPointID

(Optional) The read point at which the event took place.

bizLocation BusinessLocationID

(Optional) The business location where the objects associated with the containing and contained

EPCs may be found, until contradicted by a subsequent event.

bizTransactionList

Unordered list of zero or more

BusinessTransaction

instances

(Optional) An unordered list of business transactions that define the context of this event.

sourceList List<Source> (Optional) An unordered list of Source elements (section 7.3.6.4) that provide context about the

originating endpoint of a business transfer of which this event is a part.

destinationList List<Destination> (Optional) An unordered list of Destination elements (section 7.3.6.4) that provide context

about the terminating endpoint of a business transfer of which this event is a part.

EPCIS Standard

Field Type Description

sensorElementList

List<sensorElement>

(Optional) An unordered list of one or more sensorElements (section 7.3.7.1).

Non-Normative: The parentID of a AssociationEvent SHOULD have been captured in a prior commissioning event, even if the object is simply

the planned result of associating / assembling the child components, even if they are not yet mounted/installed.

Retrospective semantics:

■ An event described by

bizStep (and any other fields) took place involving containing entity parentID and the contained objects in childEPCs and

childQuantityList, at eventTime and location readPoint.

■ (If

action is ADD) The objects identified in childEPCs and childQuantityList were associated to containing entity parentID.

■ (If action is DELETE and childEPCs or childQuantityList is non-empty) The objects identified in childEPCs and childQuantityList were

disassociated from

parentID.

■ (If

action is DELETE and both childEPCs and childQuantityList are empty) All contained objects have been disassociated from containing

entity

parentID.

■ (If

action is ADD and a non-empty bizTransactionList is specified) An association exists between the business transactions enumerated in

bizTransactionList, the objects identified in childEPCs and childQuantityList, and containing entity parentID.

■ (If

action is OBSERVE and a non-empty bizTransactionList is specified) This event took place within the context of the business transactions

enumerated in

bizTransactionList.

■ (If action is DELETE and a non-empty bizTransactionList is specified) This event took place within the context of the business transactions

enumerated in

bizTransactionList.

■ (If sourceList is non-empty) This event took place within the context of a business transfer whose originating endpoint is described by the sources

enumerated in

sourceList.

■ (If destinationList is non-empty) This event took place within the context of a business transfer whose terminating endpoint is described by the

destinations enumerated in

destinationList.

■ (If sensorElementList is non-empty) This event took place in the context of the sensor observation specified in the sensorElementList at time

or during startTime and endTime (or at eventTime when time, startTime and endTime are omitted). All values pertain to the objects

identified by

epcList and quantityList.

EPCIS Standard

Prospective semantics:

■ (If action is ADD) An association exists between containing entity parentID and the contained objects in childEPCs and childQuantityList.

■ (If action is DELETE and childEPCs or childQuantityList is non-empty) An association no longer exists between containing entity parentID

and the contained objects identified in

childEPCs and childQuantityList.

■ (If action is DELETE and both childEPCs and childQuantityList are empty) An association no longer exists between containing entity

parentID and any contained objects.

■ (If disposition is specified) The business condition of the objects associated with the objects identified in parentID, childEPCs, and

childQuantityList is as described by disposition.

■ (If

disposition is omitted) The business condition of the objects associated with the objects in parentID, childEPCs, and childQuantityList

is unchanged.

■ (If

bizLocation is specified) The objects associated with the objects in parentID, childEPCs, and childQuantityList are at business location

bizLocation.

■ (If bizLocation is omitted) The business location of the objects associated with the objects in parentID, childEPCs, and childQuantityList

might be unknown, unless the business location can be inferred from previous events.

■ (If

action is ADD and a non-empty bizTransactionList is specified) An association exists between the business transactions enumerated in

bizTransactionList, the objects in childEPCs and childQuantityList, and containing entity parentID (if specified).

Non-Normative: Explanation: In the case where action is ADD and a non-empty bizTransactionList is specified, the semantic effect is

equivalent to having an

AssociationEvent with no bizTransactionList together with a TransactionEvent having the

bizTransactionList and all same field values as the AssociationEvent. Note, however, that an AssociationEvent with a non-empty

bizTransactionList does not cause a TransactionEvent to be returned from a query.

Non-Normative: Note: Many semantically invalid situations can be expressed with incorrect use of association. For example, the same objects may

be given multiple parents during the same time period by distinct ADD operations without an intervening DELETE. Similarly, an object can be

specified to be a child of its grand-parent or even of itself. A non-existent association may be deleted. These situations cannot be detected

syntactically and in general an individual EPCIS repository may not have sufficient information to detect them. This specification does not address

such situations.

EPCIS Standard

8 Service layer

This section includes normative specifications of modules in the Service Layer. Together, these modules define three interfaces: the EPCIS Capture

Interface, the EPCIS Query Control Interface, and the EPCIS Query Callback Interface. (The latter two interfaces are referred to collectively as the EPCIS

Query Interfaces.)

The diagram below illustrates the relationship between these interfaces, expanding upon the diagram in section 2

(this diagram is non-normative).

EPCIS Standard

In the subsections below, services are specified using UML class diagram notation. UML class diagrams used for this purpose may contain interfaces

having operations, but not fields or associations. Here is an example:

This diagram shows a service definition for

Service1, which provides three operations. Operation1 takes two arguments, arg11 and arg12, having

types

ArgType11 and ArgType12, respectively, and returns a value of type ReturnType1. Operation2 takes one argument but does not return a

result.

Operation3 does not take any arguments but returns a value of type ReturnType3.

Within the UML descriptions, the notation

<<extension point>> identifies a place where implementations SHALL provide for extensibility through the

addition of new operations. Extensibility mechanisms SHALL provide for both proprietary extensions by vendors of EPCIS-compliant products, and for

extensions defined by GS1 through future versions of this specification or through new specifications.

In the case of the standard WSDL bindings, the extension points are implemented simply by permitting the addition of additional operations.

8.1 Core capture operations module

The Core Capture Operations Module provides operations by which core events may be delivered from an EPCIS Capture Application. Within this section,

the word “client” refers to an EPCIS Capture Application and “EPCIS Service” refers to a system that implements the EPCIS Capture Interface.

8.1.1 Authentication and authorisation

Some bindings of the EPCIS Capture Interface provide a means for the EPCIS Service to authenticate the client’s identity, for the client to authenticate the

EPCIS Service’s identity, or both. The specification of the means to authenticate is included in the specification of each binding. If the EPCIS Service

authenticates the identity of the client, an implementation MAY use the client identity to make authorisation decisions as described below. Moreover, an

implementation MAY record the client identity with the captured data, for use in subsequent authorisation decisions by the system implementing the EPCIS

Query Interfaces, as described in section 8.2.2

Because of the simplicity of the EPCIS Capture Interface, the authorisation provisions are very simple to state: namely, an implementation MAY use the

authenticated client identity to decide whether a capture operation is permitted or not.

<<interface>>

Service1

operation1(arg11 : ArgType11, arg12 : ArgType12) :

ReturnType1

operation2(arg21 : ArgType21) : void

operation3() : ReturnType3

EPCIS Standard

Non-Normative: Explanation: It is expected that trading partners will always use bindings that provide for client identity authentication or mutual

authentication when using EPCIS interfaces to share data across organisational boundaries. The bindings that do not offer authentication are

expected to be used only within a single organisation in situations where authentication is not required to meet internal security requirements.

8.1.2 Capture service

The capture interface contains only a single method,

capture, which takes a single argument; if events are successfully accepted, the capture interface

responds with

202 Accepted and a captureID. Implementations of the EPCIS Capture Interface SHALL accept each element of the argument list that is

a valid

EPCISEvent or subtype thereof according to this specification. Implementations MAY accept other types of events through vendor extension. The

simplicity of this interface admits a wide variety of bindings, including simple message-queue type bindings.

Non-Normative: Explanation: “Message-queue type bindings” means the following. Enterprises commonly use “message bus” technology for

interconnection of different distributed system components. A message bus provides a reliable channel for in-order delivery of messages from a

sender to a receiver. (The relationship between sender and receiver may be point-to-point (a message “queue”) or one-to-many via a

publish/subscribe mechanism (a message “topic”).) A “message-queue type binding” of the EPCIS Capture Interface would simply be the

designation of a particular message bus channel for the purpose of delivering EPCIS events from an EPCIS Capture Application to an EPCIS

Repository, or to an EPCIS Accessing Application by way of the EPCIS Query Callback Interface. Each message would have a payload containing one

or more EPCIS events (serialised through some binding at the Data Definition Layer; e.g., an XML binding). In such a binding, therefore, each

transmission/delivery of a message corresponds to a single “capture” operation.

The

capture operation records one or more EPCIS events, of any type.

<<interface>>

CoreCaptureService

capture(event : List<EPCISEvent>) : void

<<extension point>>

EPCIS Standard

Arguments:

Argument Type Description

event

List of

EPCISEvent

The event(s) to capture. All relevant information such as the event time, EPCs, etc., are contained within each event. Exception: the

recordTime MAY be omitted. Whether the recordTime is omitted or not in the input, following the capture operation the

recordTime of the event as recorded by the EPCIS Repository or EPCIS Accessing Application is the time of capture. Note that the

optional

eventID is not treated like recordTime; like any other EPCIS field, eventID shall be captured without modification by the

capture interface unless the

eventID field is empty, in which case a capture interface MAY add an eventID.

Explanation (non-normative): this treatment of recordTime is necessary for standing queries to be processed properly. See

section

8.2.5.2.

Return value:

(none)

The concrete bindings of the EPCIS Capture Interface in section 11 use the EPCIS document structure defined in section 9.5

to carry the list of EPCIS

events to be captured. An EPCIS document may contain master data in the document header. An implementation of the EPCIS Capture Interface

conforming to this standard MAY choose to record that master data or MAY choose to ignore it – the disposition of master data received through the EPCIS

Capture Interface is not specified by the EPCIS standard.

On the other hand, any instance/lot master data carried in the ILMD section of an event SHALL be captured as part of the event, as is true for any data

element within an EPCIS event. It SHALL be possible to query such master data by using the query parameters of the SimpleEventQuery specified in

section 8.2.7.1

An implementation of the capture interface SHALL either capture all events specified in a given capture operation or fail to capture all events in that

operation. That is, an implementation SHALL NOT have the possibility of partial success where some events in the list are captured and others are not.

The reasons why a capture operation fails are implementation-specific. Examples of possible reasons a failure may occur include:

■ The input to the capture operation is not well formed or does not conform to the syntactic requirements of the concrete binding being used, including

schema-validity for concrete bindings that use the XML schemas defined in section 9

■ The client is not authorized to perform the capture operation.

■ Implementation-specific limits regarding the number of events in a single capture operation, the total number of events stored, the frequency of

capture, etc., are exceeded.

■ Implementation-specific rules regarding the content of events, either in isolation or with reference to previously captured events, are violated. Note

that such rules may be appropriate in a closed system where the use of EPCIS is governed by a specific application standard, but may not be

appropriate in an open system designed to handle any EPCIS data. Rules of this kind may limit interoperability if they are too narrow.

EPCIS Standard

■ A temporary failure, such as the temporary unavailability of a server or network.

8.2 Core Query operations module

The Core Query Operations Module provides two interfaces, called the EPCIS Query Control Interface and the EPCIS Query Callback Interface, by which

EPCIS data can be retrieved by an EPCIS Accessing Application. The EPCIS Query Control Interface defines a means for EPCIS Accessing Applications and

trading partners to obtain EPCIS data subsequent to capture from any source, typically by interacting with an EPCIS Repository. It provides a means for

an EPCIS Accessing Application to retrieve data on-demand, and also enter subscriptions for standing queries. Results of standing queries are delivered to

EPCIS Accessing Applications via the EPCIS Query Callback Interface. Within this section, the word “client” refers to an EPCIS Accessing Application and

“EPCIS Service” refers to a system that implements the EPCIS Query Control Interface, and in addition delivers information to a client via the EPCIS Query

Callback Interface.

8.2.1 Authentication

Some bindings of the EPCIS Query Control Interface provide a means for the EPCIS Service to authenticate the client’s identity, for the client to

authenticate the EPCIS Service’s identity, or both. The specification of the means to authenticate is included in the specification of each binding. If the

EPCIS Service authenticates the identity of the client, an implementation MAY use the client identity to make authorisation decisions as described in the

next section.

Non-Normative: Explanation: It is expected that trading partners will always use bindings that provide for client identity authentication or mutual

authentication when using EPCIS interfaces to share data across organisational boundaries. The bindings that do not offer authentication are

expected to be used only within a single organisation in situations where authentication is not required to meet internal security requirements.

8.2.2 Authorisation and redaction

An EPCIS service may wish to provide access to only a subset of information, depending on the identity of the requesting client. This situation commonly

arises in cross-enterprise scenarios where the requesting client belongs to a different organisation than the operator of an EPCIS service, but may also

arise in intra-enterprise scenarios.

Given an EPCIS query, an EPCIS service MAY take any of the following actions in processing the query, based on the authenticated identity of the client:

■ The service MAY refuse to honour the request altogether, by responding with a

SecurityException as defined below.

■ The service MAY respond with less data than requested. For example, if a client presents a query requesting all ObjectEvent instances within a

specified time interval, the service knows of 100 matching events, the service may choose to respond with fewer than 100 events (e.g., returning only

those events whose EPCs are SGTINs with a company prefix known to be assigned to the client).

■ The service MAY respond with coarser grained information. In particular, when the response to a query includes a location type (as defined in section

7.3.4

), the service may substitute an aggregate location in place of a primitive location.

EPCIS Standard

■ The service MAY hide information. For example, if a client presents a query requesting ObjectEvent instances, the service may choose to delete the

bizTransactionList fields in its response. The information returned, however, SHALL be well-formed EPCIS events consistent with this

specification and industry guidelines. In addition, if hiding information would otherwise result in ambiguous, or misleading information, then the entire

event SHOULD be withheld. This applies whether the original information was captured through the EPCIS Capture Interface or provided by some

other means. For example, given an AggregationEvent with action equal to ADD, an attempt to hide the

parentID field would result in a non-well-

formed event, because

parentID is required when the action is ADD; in this instance, therefore, the entire event would have to be withheld.

■ The service MAY limit the scope of the query to data that was originally captured by a particular client identity. This allows a single EPCIS service to be

“partitioned” for use by groups of unrelated users whose data should be kept separate.

An EPCIS implementation is free to determine which if any of these actions to take in processing any query, using any means it chooses. The specification

of authorisation rules is outside the scope of this specification.

Non-Normative: Explanation: Because the EPCIS specification is concerned with the query interfaces as opposed to any particular implementation,

the EPCIS specification does not take a position as to how authorisation decisions are taken. Particular implementations of EPCIS may have

arbitrarily complex business rules for authorisation. That said, the EPCIS specification may contain standard data that is needed for authorisation,

whether exclusively for that purpose or not.

8.2.3 Queries for large amounts of data

Many of the query operations defined below allow a client to make a request for a potentially unlimited amount of data. For example, the response to a

query that asks for all

ObjectEvent instances within a given interval of time could conceivably return one, a thousand, a million, or a billion events

depending on the time interval and how many events had been captured. This may present performance problems for service implementations.

To mitigate this problem, an EPCIS service MAY reject any request by raising a

QueryTooLarge exception. This exception indicates that the amount of

data being requested is larger than the service is willing to provide to the client. The

QueryTooLarge exception is a hint to the client that the client might

succeed by narrowing the scope of the original query, or by presenting the query at a different time (e.g., if the service accepts or rejects queries based

on the current computational load on the service).

Non-Normative: Roadmap: It is expected that future versions of this specification will provide more sophisticated ways to deal with the large

query problem, such as paging, use of cursors, etc. Nothing more complicated was agreed to in this version.

8.2.4 Overly complex queries

EPCIS service implementations may wish to restrict the kinds of queries that can be processed, to avoid processing queries that will consume more

resources than the service is willing to expend. For example, a query that is looking for events having a specific value in a particular event field may

require more or fewer resources to process depending on whether the implementation anticipated searching on that field (e.g., depending on whether or

EPCIS Standard

not a database column corresponding to that field is indexed). As with queries for too much data (section 8.2.3), this may present performance problems

for service implementations.

To mitigate this problem, an EPCIS service MAY reject any request by raising a QueryTooComplex exception. This exception indicates that structure of

the query is such that the service is unwilling to carry it out for the client. Unlike the

QueryTooLarge exception (section 8.2.3), the QueryTooComplex

indicates that merely narrowing the scope of the query (e.g., by asking for one week’s worth of events instead of one month’s) is unlikely to make the

query succeed.

A particular query language may specify conditions under which an EPCIS service is not permitted to reject a query with a QueryTooComplex exception.

This provides a minimum level of interoperability.

8.2.5 Query framework (EPCIS query control interface)

The EPCIS Query Control Interface provides a general framework by which client applications may query EPCIS data. The interface provides both on-

demand queries, in which an explicit request from a client causes a query to be executed and results returned in response, and standing queries, in which

a client registers ongoing interest in a query and thereafter receives periodic delivery of results via the EPCIS Query Callback Interface without making

further requests. These two modes are informally referred to as “pull” and “push,” respectively.

The EPCIS Query Control Interface is defined below. An implementation of the Query Control Interface SHALL implement all of the methods defined below.

<<interface>>

EPCISQueryControlInterface

---

subscribe(queryName : String, params : QueryParams, dest : URI, controls : SubscriptionControls, subscriptionID : String)

unsubscribe(subscriptionID : String)

poll(queryName : String, params : QueryParams) : QueryResults

getQueryNames() : List // of names

getSubscriptionIDs(queryName : String) : List // of Strings

getStandardVersion() : string

getVendorVersion() : string

<<extension point>>

Standing queries are made by making one or more subscriptions to a previously defined query using the subscribe method. Results will be delivered

periodically via the Query Callback Interface to a specified destination, until the subscription is cancelled using the

unsubscribe method. On-demand

queries are made by executing a previously defined query using the

poll method. Each invocation of the poll method returns a result directly to the

caller. In either case, if the query is parameterised, specific settings for the parameters may be provided as arguments to

subscribe or poll.

An implementation MAY provide one or more “pre-defined” queries. A pre-defined query is available for use by subscribe or poll, and is returned in the

list of query names returned by

getQueryNames, without the client having previously taken any action to define the query. In particular, EPCIS 1.0 does

not support any mechanism by which a client can define a new query, and so pre-defined queries are the only queries available. See section 8.2.7

for

specific pre-defined queries that SHALL be provided by an implementation of the EPCIS 1.0 Query Interface.

EPCIS Standard

An implementation MAY permit a given query to be used with poll but not with subscribe. Generally, queries for event data may be used with both

poll and subscribe, but queries for master data may be used only with poll. This is because subscribe establishes a periodic schedule for running a

query multiple times, each time restricting attention to new events recorded since the last time the query was run. This mechanism cannot apply to

queries for master data, because master data is presumed to be quasi-static and does not have anything corresponding to a record time.

The specification of these methods is as follows:

Method Description

subscribe Registers a subscriber for a previously defined query having the specified name. The params argument provides the values to be used for

any named parameters defined by the query. The

dest parameter specifies a destination where results from the query are to be

delivered, via the Query Callback Interface. The

dest parameter is a URI that both identifies a specific binding of the Query Callback

Interface to use and specifies addressing information. The

controls parameter controls how the subscription is to be processed; in

particular, it specifies the conditions under which the query is to be invoked (e.g., specifying a periodic schedule). The

subscriptionID is an arbitrary string that is copied into every response delivered to the specified destination, and otherwise not

interpreted by the EPCIS service. The client may use the

subscriptionID to identify from which subscription a given result was

generated, especially when several subscriptions are made to the same destination.

The dest argument may be null or empty, in which case the EPCIS implementation SHALL deliver results to a pre-arranged destination

based on the authenticated identity of the caller; however, if the implementation does not have a destination pre-arranged for the caller,

or does not permit this usage, it SHALL raise an

InvalidURIException

instead.

unsubscribe

Removes a previously registered subscription having the specified

subscriptionID

poll Invokes a previously defined query having the specified name, returning the results. The params argument provides the values to be

used for any named parameters defined by the query.

getQueryNames Returns a list of all query names available for use with the subscribe and poll methods. This includes all pre-defined queries provided

by the implementation, including those specified in section 8.2.7

getSubscriptionIDs

Returns a list of all

subscriptionID

s currently subscribed to the specified named query.

getStandardVersion

Returns a string that identifies what version of the EPCIS specification this implementation complies with. The possible values for this

string are defined by GS1. An implementation SHALL return a string corresponding to a version of this specification to which the

implementation fully complies, and SHOULD return the string corresponding to the latest version with which it complies. To indicate

compliance with this Version 2.0 of the EPCIS specification, the implementation SHALL return the string

2.0

getVendorVersion

Returns a string that identifies what vendor extensions this implementation provides. The possible values of this string and their meanings

are vendor-defined, except that the empty string SHALL indicate that the implementation implements only standard functionality with no

vendor extensions. When an implementation chooses to return a non-empty string, the value returned SHALL be a URI where the vendor

is the owning authority. For example, this may be an HTTP URL whose authority portion is a domain name owned by the vendor, a URN

having a URN namespace identifier issued to the vendor by IANA, an OID URN whose initial path is a Private Enterprise Number assigned

to the vendor, etc.

EPCIS Standard

This framework applies regardless of the content of a query. The detailed contents of a query, and the results as returned from poll or delivered to a

subscriber via the Query Callback Interface, are defined in later sections of this document. This structure is designed to facilitate extensibility, as new

types of queries may be specified and fit into this general framework.

An implementation MAY restrict the behaviour of any method according to authorisation decisions based on the authenticated client identity of the client

making the request. For example, an implementation may limit the IDs returned by

getSubscriptionIDs and recognised by unsubscribe to just

those subscribers that were previously subscribed by the same client identity. This allows a single EPCIS service to be “partitioned” for use by groups of

unrelated users whose data should be kept separate.

If a pre-defined query defines named parameters, values for those parameters may be supplied when the query is subsequently referred to using

poll or

subscribe. A QueryParams instance is simply a set of name/value pairs, where the names correspond to parameter names defined by the query, and

the values are the specific values to be used for that invocation of (

poll) or subscription to (subscribe) the query. If a QueryParams instance includes

a name/value pair where the value is empty string, empty array or

null, it SHALL be interpreted as though that query parameter were omitted altogether

and disregarded.

The

poll or subscribe method SHALL raise a QueryParameterException under any of the following circumstances:

■ A parameter required by the specified query was omitted or was supplied with an empty value

■ A parameter was supplied whose name does not correspond to any parameter name defined by the specified query

■ Two parameters are supplied having the same name

■ Any other constraint imposed by the specified query is violated. Such constraints may include restrictions on the range of values permitted for a given

parameter, requirements that two or more parameters be mutually exclusive or must be supplied together, and so on. The specific constraints

imposed by a given query are specified in the documentation for that query.

8.2.5.1 Subscription controls

Standing queries are subscribed to via the

subscribe method. For each subscription, a SubscriptionControls instance defines how the query is to

be processed.

SubscriptionControls

---

schedule : QuerySchedule // see Section 8.2.5.3

trigger : URI // specifies a trigger event known by the service

initialRecordTime : Time // see Section 8.2.5.2

reportIfEmpty : boolean

<<extension point>>

The fields of a SubscriptionControls instance are defined below.

EPCIS Standard

Argument Type Description

schedule QuerySchedule

(Optional) Defines the periodic schedule on which the query is to be executed. See section 8.2.5.3. Exactly one of

schedule or trigger is required; if both are specified or both are omitted, the implementation SHALL raise a

SubscriptionControlsException

trigger URI

(Optional) Specifies a triggering event known to the EPCIS service that will serve to trigger execution of this query.

The

available trigger URIs are service-dependent. Exactly one of schedule or trigger is required; if both

are specified or both are omitted, the implementation SHALL raise a

SubscriptionControlsException

initialRecordTime Time

(Optional) Specifies a time used to constrain what events are considered when processing the query when it is

executed for the first time. See section 8.2.5.2

. If omitted, defaults to the time at which the subscription is created.

reportIfEmpty boolean If true, a QueryResults instance is always sent to the subscriber when the query is executed. If false, a

QueryResults

instance is sent to the subscriber only when the results are non-empty.

8.2.5.2 Automatic limitation based on event record time

Each subscription to a query results in the query being executed many times in succession, the timing of each execution being controlled by the specified

schedule or being triggered by a triggering condition specified by trigger. Having multiple executions of the same query is only sensible if each

execution is limited in scope to new event data generated since the last execution – otherwise, the same events would be returned more than once.

However, the time constraints cannot be specified explicitly in the query or query parameters, because these do not change from one execution to the

next.

For this reason, an EPCIS service SHALL constrain the scope of each query execution for a subscribed query in the following manner. The first time the

query is executed for a given subscription, the only events considered are those whose

recordTime field is greater than or equal to

initialRecordTime specified when the subscription was created. For each execution of the query following the first, the only events considered are

those whose

recordTime field is greater than or equal to the time when the query was last executed. It is implementation dependent as to the extent

that failure to deliver query results to the subscriber affects this calculation; implementations SHOULD make best efforts to insure reliable delivery of

query results so that a subscriber does not miss any data. The query or query parameters may specify additional constraints upon record time; these are

applied after restricting the universe of events as described above.

Non-Normative: Explanation: one possible implementation of this requirement is that the EPCIS service maintains a minRecordTime value for

each subscription that exists. The

minRecordTime for a given subscription is initially set to initialRecordTime, and updated to the current time

each time the query is executed for that subscription. Each time the query is executed, the only events considered are those whose

recordTime is

greater than or equal to

minRecordTime for that subscription.

EPCIS Standard

8.2.5.3 Query schedule

A QuerySchedule may be specified to specify a periodic schedule for query execution for a specific subscription. Each field of QuerySchedule is a string

that specifies a pattern for matching some part of the current time. The query will be executed each time the current date and time matches the

specification in the

QuerySchedule.

Each

QuerySchedule field is a string, whose value must conform to the following grammar:

QueryScheduleField ::= Element ( “,” Element )*

Element ::= Number | Range

Range ::= “[“ Number “-“ Number “]”

Number ::= Digit+

Digit ::= “0” | “1” | “2” | “3” | “4”

| “5” | “6” | “7” | “8” | “9”

Each

Number that is part of the query schedule field value must fall within the legal range for that field as specified in the table below. An EPCIS

implementation SHALL raise a

SubscriptionControlsException if any query schedule field value does not conform to the grammar above, or

contains a

Number that falls outside the legal range, or includes a Range where the first Number is greater than the second Number.

The QuerySchedule specifies a periodic sequence of time values (the “query times”). A query time is any time value that matches the QuerySchedule,

according to the following rule:

■ Given a time value, extract the second, minute, hour (0 through 23, inclusive), dayOfMonth (1 through 31, inclusive), and dayOfWeek (1 through 7,

inclusive, denoting Monday through Sunday). This calculation is to be performed relative to a time zone chosen by the EPCIS Service.

■ The time value matches the QuerySchedule if each of the values extracted above matches (as defined below) the corresponding field of the

QuerySchedule, for all QuerySchedule fields that are not omitted.

■ A value extracted from the time value matches a field of the QuerySchedule if it matches any of the comma-separated Elements of the query

schedule field.

■ A value extracted from the time value matches an

Element of a query schedule field if

■ the Element is a Number and the value extracted from the time value is equal to the Number; or

■ the

Element is a Range and the value extracted from the time value is greater than or equal to the first Number in the Range and less than or equal

to the second

Number in the Range.

See examples following the table below.

EPCIS Standard

An EPCIS implementation SHALL interpret the QuerySchedule as a client’s statement of when it would like the query to be executed, and SHOULD make

reasonable efforts to adhere to that schedule. An EPCIS implementation MAY, however, deviate from the requested schedule according to its own policies

regarding server load, authorisation, or any other reason. If an EPCIS implementation knows, at the time the

subscribe method is called, that it will not

be able to honour the specified

QuerySchedule without deviating widely from the request, the EPCIS implementation SHOULD raise a

SubscriptionControlsException instead.

Non-Normative: Explanation: The QuerySchedule, taken literally, specifies the exact timing of query execution down to the second. In practice,

an implementation may not wish to or may not be able to honour that request precisely, but can honour the general intent. For example, a

QuerySchedule may specify that a query be executed every hour on the hour, while an implementation may choose to execute the query every

hour plus or minus five minutes from the top of the hour. The paragraph above is intended to give implementations latitude for this kind of

deviation.

In any case, the automatic handling of

recordTime as specified earlier SHALL be based on the actual time the query is executed, whether or not that

exactly matches the

QuerySchedule.

The field of a

QuerySchedule instance are as follows.

Argument Type Description

second

String

(Optional) Specifies that the query time must have a matching seconds value. The range for this parameter is 0 through 59, inclusive.

minute

String

(Optional) Specifies that the query time must have a matching minute value. The range for this parameter is 0 through 59, inclusive.

hour String

(Optional) Specifies that the query time must have a matching hour value. The range for this parameter is 0 through 23, inclusive, with 0

denoting the hour that begins at midnight, and 23 denoting the hour that ends at midnight.

dayOfMonth String

(Optional) Specifies that the query time must have a matching day of month value. The range for this parameter is 1 through 31, inclusive.

(Values of 29, 30, and 31 will only match during months that have at least that many days.)

month

String

(Optional) Specifies that the query time must have a matching month value. The range for this parameter is 1 through 12, inclusive.

dayOfWeek String

(Optional) Specifies that the query time must have a matching day of week value. The range for this parameter is 1 through 7, inclusive,

with 1 denoting Monday, 2 denoting Tuesday, and so forth, up to 7 denoting Sunday.

Explanation (non-normative): this numbering scheme is consistent with ISO-8601.

8.2.5.3.1 Query schedule examples (Non-Normative)

Here are some examples of QuerySchedule and what they mean.

EPCIS Standard

Example 1

QuerySchedule

second = “0”

minute = “0”

all other fields omitted

This means “run the query once per hour, at the top of the hour.” If the reportIfEmpty argument to subscribe is false, then this does not necessarily cause

a report to be sent each hour – a report would be sent within an hour of any new event data becoming available that matches the query.

Example 2

QuerySchedule

second = “0”

minute = “30”

hour = “2”

all other fields omitted

This means “run the query once per day, at 2:30 am.”

Example 3

QuerySchedule

second = “0”

minute = “0”

dayOfWeek = “[1-5]”

This means “run the query once per hour at the top of the hour, but only on weekdays.”

Example 4

QuerySchedule

hour = “2”

all other fields omitted

This means “run the query once per second between 2:00:00 and 2:59:59 each day.” This example illustrates that it usually not desirable to omit a field

of finer granularity than the fields that are specified.

8.2.5.4 QueryResults

QueryResults instance is returned synchronously from the poll method of the EPCIS Query Control Interface, and also delivered asynchronously to a

subscriber of a standing query via the EPCIS Query Callback Interface.

EPCIS Standard

QueryResults

---

queryName : string

subscriptionID : string

resultsBody : QueryResultsBody

<<extension point>>

The fields of a QueryResults instance are defined below.

Field Type Description

queryName String This field SHALL contain the name of the query (the queryName argument that was specified in the call to poll

subscriptionID string (Conditional) When a QueryResults instance is delivered to a subscriber as the result of a standing query,

subscriptionID SHALL contain the same string provided as the subscriptionID argument the call to

subscribe.

When a

QueryResults

instance is returned as the result of a

poll

method, this field SHALL be omitted.

resultsBody QueryResultsBody

The information returned as the result of a query. The exact type of this field depends on which query is executed.

Each of the predefined queries in section 8.2.7

specifies the corresponding type for this field.

8.2.6 Error conditions

Methods of the EPCIS Query Control API signal error conditions to the client by means of exceptions. The following exceptions are defined. All the

exception types in the following table are extensions of a common

EPCISException base type, which contains one required string element giving the

reason for the exception.

Exception Name Meaning

SecurityException

The operation was not permitted due to an access control violation or other security concern. This includes the case

where the service wishes to deny authorisation to execute a particular operation based on the authenticated client

identity. The specific circumstances that may cause this exception are implementation-specific, and outside the scope

of this specification.

DuplicateNameException

(Not implemented in EPCIS 1.2)

The specified query name already exists.

QueryValidationException

(Not implemented in EPCIS 1.2)

The specified query is invalid; e.g., it contains a syntax error.

EPCIS Standard

Exception Name Meaning

QueryParameterException

One or more query parameters are invalid, including any of the following situations:

 the parameter name is not a recognised parameter for the specified query

 the value of a parameter is of the wrong type or out of range

 two or more query parameters have the same parameter name

QueryTooLargeException

An attempt to execute a query resulted in more data than the service was willing to provide.

QueryTooComplexException

The specified query parameters, while otherwise valid, implied a query that was more complex than the service was

willing to execute.

InvalidURIException

The URI specified for a subscriber cannot be parsed, does not name a scheme recognised by the implementation, or

violates rules imposed by a particular scheme.

SubscriptionControlsException

The specified subscription controls was invalid; e.g., the schedule parameters were out of range, the trigger URI could

not be parsed or did not name a recognised trigger, etc.

NoSuchNameException

The specified query name does not exist.

NoSuchSubscriptionException

The specified

subscriptionID

does not exist.

NoSuchResourceException

The specified resource does not exist.

DuplicateSubscriptionException

The specified

subscriptionID

is identical to a previous subscription that was created and not yet unsubscribed.

SubscribeNotPermittedException

The specified query name may not be used with

, only with

poll

ValidationException

The input to the operation was not syntactically valid according to the syntax defined by the binding. Each binding

specifies the particular circumstances under which this exception is raised.

ImplementationException

A generic exception thrown by the implementation for reasons that are implementation-specific. This exception

contains one additional element: a

severity member whose values are either ERROR or SEVERE. ERROR indicates

that the EPCIS implementation is left in the same state it had before the operation was attempted.

SEVERE indicates

that the EPCIS implementation is left in an indeterminate state.

Note that the REST interface does not implement the following exceptions:

The exceptions that may be thrown by each method of the EPCIS Query Control Interface are indicated in the table below:

EPCIS Method Exceptions

getQueryNames SecurityException

ValidationException

ImplementationException

EPCIS Standard

EPCIS Method Exceptions

subscribe NoSuchNameException

InvalidURIException

DuplicateSubscriptionException

QueryParameterException

QueryTooComplexException

SubscriptionControlsException

SubscribeNotPermittedException

SecurityException

ValidationException

ImplementationException

unsubscribe NoSuchSubscriptionException

SecurityException

ValidationException

ImplementationException

poll NoSuchNameException

QueryParameterException

QueryTooComplexException

QueryTooLargeException

SecurityException

ValidationException

ImplementationException

getSubscriptionIDs NoSuchNameException SecurityException

ValidationException

ImplementationException

getStandardVersion SecurityException

ValidationException

ImplementationException

getVendorVersion SecurityException

ValidationException

ImplementationException

In addition to exceptions thrown from methods of the EPCIS Query Control Interface as enumerated above, an attempt to execute a standing query may

result in a

QueryTooLargeException or an ImplementationException being sent to a subscriber via the EPCIS Query Callback Interface instead of

EPCIS Standard

a normal query result. In this case, the QueryTooLargeException or ImplementationException SHALL include, in addition to the reason string, the

query name and the

subscriptionID as specified in the subscribe call that created the standing query.

8.2.7 Predefined queries for EPCIS

In EPCIS, no query language is provided by which a client may express an arbitrary query for data. Instead, an EPCIS implementation SHALL provide the

following predefined queries, which a client may invoke using the

poll and subscribe methods of the EPCIS Query Control Interface. Each poll or

subscribe call may include parameters via the params argument. The predefined queries defined in this section each have a large number of optional

parameters; by appropriate choice of parameters a client can achieve a variety of effects.

The parameters for each predefined query and what results it returns are specified in this section. An implementation of EPCIS is free to use any internal

representation for data it wishes, and implement these predefined queries using any database or query technology it chooses, so long as the results seen

by a client are consistent with this specification.

8.2.7.1 SimpleEventQuery

This query is invoked by specifying the string

SimpleEventQuery as the queryName argument to poll or subscribe. The result is a QueryResults

instance whose body contains a (possibly empty) list of EPCISEvent instances. Unless constrained by the eventType parameter, each property of the

result list could be of any event type; i.e.,

ObjectEvent, AggregationEvent, TransactionEvent, or any extension event type that is a subclass of

EPCISEvent.

The SimpleEventQuery SHALL be available via both poll and subscribe; that is, an implementation SHALL NOT raise

SubscribeNotPermittedException when SimpleEventQuery is specified as the queryName argument to subscribe.

The

SimpleEventQuery is defined to return a set of events that matches the criteria specified in the query parameters (as specified below). When

returning events that were captured via the EPCIS Capture Interface, each event that is selected to be returned SHALL be identical to the originally

captured event, subject to the provisions of authorisation (section 8.2.2

), the inclusion of the recordTime field, and any necessary conversions to and

from an abstract internal representation. For any event field defined to hold an unordered list, however, an EPCIS implementation MAY preserve the order.

The parameters for this query are as follows. None of these parameters is required (though in most cases, a query will include at least one query

parameter).

EPCIS Standard

Parameter name Parameter value

type

Meaning

eventType

List of String If specified, the result will only include events whose type matches one of the

types specified in the parameter value. Each property of the parameter value may

be one of the following strings:

ObjectEvent, AggregationEvent,

TransactionEvent, TransformationEvent or AssociationEvent.

A property of the parameter value may also be the name of an extension event

type.

If omitted, all event types will be considered for inclusion in the result.

GE_eventTime

DateTimeStamp

If specified, only events with

eventTime greater than or equal to the specified

value will be included in the result.

If omitted, events are included regardless of their eventTime (unless

constrained by the

LT_eventTime

parameter).

LT_eventTime

DateTimeStamp

If specified, only events with

eventTime less than the specified value will be

included in the result.

If omitted, events are included regardless of their eventTime (unless

constrained by the

GE_eventTime

parameter).

GE_recordTime

DateTimeStamp

If provided, only events with

recordTime greater than or equal to the specified

value will be returned. The automatic limitation based on event record time

(section 8.2.5.2

) may implicitly provide a constraint similar to this parameter.

If omitted, events are included regardless of their recordTime, other than

automatic limitation based on event record time (section 8.2.5.2

LT_recordTime

DateTimeStamp

If provided, only events with

recordTime less than the specified value will be

returned.

If omitted, events are included regardless of their

recordTime (unless

constrained by the

GE_recordTime parameter or the automatic limitation

based on event record time).

EQ_action

List of String

If specified, the result will only include events that (a) have an

action field; and

where (b) the value of the

action field matches one of the specified values. The

properties of the value of this parameter each must be one of the strings

ADD,

OBSERVE, or DELETE; if not, the implementation SHALL raise a

QueryParameterException.

If omitted, events are included regardless of their

action

field.

EPCIS Standard

Parameter name Parameter value

type

Meaning

EQ_bizStep

List of URIs

If specified, the result will only include events that (a) have a non-null

bizStep

field; and where (b) the value of the

bizStep field matches one of the specified

values.

If this parameter is omitted, events are returned regardless of the value of the

bizStep

field or whether the

bizStep

field exists at all.

EQ_disposition

List of URIs

Like the

EQ_bizStep

parameter, but for the

disposition

field.

EQ_persistentDisposition_set

List of URIs

Like the

EQ_bizStep parameter, but for the persistentDisposition set

field.

EQ_persistentDisposition_unset

List of URIs

Like the EQ_bizStep parameter, but for the persistentDisposition

unset

field.

EQ_readPoint

List of URIs If specified, the result will only include events that (a) have a non-null

readPoint field; and where (b) the value of the readPoint field matches one

of the specified URIs.

If this parameter and

WD_readPoint are both omitted, events are returned

regardless of the value of the

readPoint field or whether the readPoint field

exists at all.

EQ_readPoint_fieldname

List of String

Analogous to

EQ_fieldname, but matches events whose readPoint contains a

field having the specified

fieldname whose value matches one of the specified

values.

EQ_readPoint_fieldname

Int

Float

DateTimeStamp

Double

EQ_readPoint_fieldname as described above, but may be applied to a

field of type Int, Float, Double or Time. The result will include events whose

readPoint (a) has a field named fieldname; and where (b) the type of the

field matches the type of this parameter (Int, Float, Double or Time); and where

fieldname

is constructed as for

EQ_readPoint_fieldname

EQ_INNER_readPoint_fieldname

List of String

Analogous to

EQ_INNER fieldname, but matches inner extension fields; that

is, any field nested within a top-level extension element. Note that a matching

inner field may exist within more than one top-level field or may occur more than

once within a single top-level field; this parameter matches if at least one

matching occurrence is found anywhere in the event (except at top-level).

EPCIS Standard

Parameter name Parameter value

type

Meaning

EQ_INNER_readPoint_fieldname

Int

Float

DateTimeStamp

Double

EQ_INNER_readPoint_fieldname as described above, but may be

applied to a field of type Int, Float, Double or Time. The result will include events

whose

readPoint (a) has an inner extension (nested) field named fieldname;

and where (b) the type of the field matches the type of this parameter (Int, Float,

Double or Time); and where (c) the value of the field is equal to the specified

value.

fieldname

is constructed as for

EQ_INNER_readPoint_fieldname

WD_readPoint

List of URIs If specified, the result will only include events that (a) have a non-null

readPoint field; and where (b) the value of the readPoint field matches one

of the specified URIs, or is a direct or indirect descendant of one of the specified

values. The meaning of “direct or indirect descendant” is specified by master data,

as described in section 6.5

. (WD is an abbreviation for “with descendants.”)

If this parameter and EQ_readPoint are both omitted, events are returned

regardless of the value of the

readPoint field or whether the readPoint field

exists at all.

EQ_bizLocation

List of URIs

Like the

EQ_readPoint

parameter, but for the

bizLocation

field.

EQ_bizLocation_fieldname

List of String

Analogous to

EQ_readPoint_fieldname, but matches events whose

bizLocation contains a field having the specified fieldname whose value

matches one of the specified values.

EQ_bizLocation_fieldname

Int

Float

DateTimeStamp

Double

EQ_bizLocation_fieldname as described above, but may be applied to

a field of type Int, Float, Double or Time. The result will include events whose

bizLocation (a) has a field named fieldname; and where (b) the type of the

field matches the type of this parameter (Int, Float, Double or Time); and where

fieldname

is constructed as for

EQ_bizLocation_fieldname

EQ_INNER_bizLocation_fieldname

List of String

Analogous to

EQ_INNER_bizLocation_fieldname, but matches inner

extension fields; that is, any field nested within a top-level extension element.

Note that a matching inner field may exist within more than one top-level field or

may occur more than once within a single top-level field; this parameter matches

if at least one matching occurrence is found anywhere in the event (except at top-

level).

EPCIS Standard

Parameter name Parameter value

type

Meaning

EQ_INNER_bizLocation_fieldname

Int

Float

DateTimeStamp

Double

EQ_INNER_bizLocation_fieldname as described above, but may be

applied to a field of type Int, Float, Double or Time. The result will include events

whose

bizLocation (a) has an inner extension (nested) field named

fieldname; and where (b) the type of the field matches the type of this

parameter (Int, Float, Double or Time); and where (c) the value of the field is

equal to the specified value.

fieldname

is constructed as for

EQ_INNER_bizLocation_fieldname

WD_bizLocation

List of URIs

Like the

WD_readPoint

parameter, but for the

bizLocation

field.

EQ_bizTransaction_type

List of URIs This is not a single parameter, but a family of parameters.

If a parameter of this form is specified, the result will only include events that (a)

include a

bizTransactionList; (b) where the business transaction list

includes an entry whose

type subfield is equal to type extracted from the name

of this parameter; and (c) where the

bizTransaction subfield of that entry is

equal to one of the values specified in this parameter.

EQ_source_type

List of URIs This is not a single parameter, but a family of parameters.

If a parameter of this form is specified, the result will only include events that (a)

include a

sourceList; (b) where the source list includes an entry whose type

subfield is equal to

type extracted from the name of this parameter; and (c)

where the

source subfield of that entry is equal to one of the values specified in

this parameter.

EQ_destination_type

List of URIs This is not a single parameter, but a family of parameters.

If a parameter of this form is specified, the result will only include events that (a)

include a

destinationList; (b) where the destination list includes an entry

whose

type subfield is equal to type extracted from the name of this

parameter; and (c) where the

destination subfield of that entry is equal to

one of the values specified in this parameter.

EQ_transformationID

List of URIs If this parameter is specified, the result will only include events that (a) have a

transformationID field (that is, TransformationEvents or extension

event type that extend

TransformationEvent); and where (b) the

transformationID field is equal to one of the values specified in this

parameter.

EPCIS Standard

Parameter name Parameter value

type

Meaning

MATCH_epc

List of URIs If this parameter is specified, the result will only include events that (a) have an

epcList or a childEPCs field (that is, ObjectEvent,

AggregationEvent, TransactionEvent, AssociationEvent or

extension event types that extend one of those event types); and where (b) one of

the EPCs listed in the

epcList or childEPCs field (depending on event type)

matches one of the URIs specified in this parameter, where the meaning of

“matches” is as specified in section 8.2.7.1.1

If this parameter is omitted, events are included regardless of their epcList or

childEPCs

field or whether the

epcList

childEPCs

field exists.

MATCH_parentID

List of URIs

MATCH_epc, but matches the parentID field of AggregationEvent, the

parentID field of TransactionEvent, the parentID field of

AssociationEvent and extension event types that extend those event types.

The meaning of “matches” is as specified in section 8.2.7.1.1

MATCH_inputEPC

List of URIs If this parameter is specified, the result will only include events that (a) have an

inputEPCList (that is, TransformationEvent or an extension event type that

extends

TransformationEvent); and where (b) one of the EPCs listed in the

inputEPCList field matches one of the URIs specified in this parameter. The

meaning of “matches” is as specified in section 8.2.7.1.1

If this parameter is omitted, events are included regardless of their

inputEPCList

field or whether the

inputEPCList

field exists.

MATCH_outputEPC

List of URIs If this parameter is specified, the result will only include events that (a) have an

outputEPCList (that is, TransformationEvent or an extension event type

that extends

TransformationEvent); and where (b) one of the EPCs listed in

the

outputEPCList field matches one of the URIs specified in this parameter.

The meaning of “matches” is as specified in section 8.2.7.1.1

If this parameter is omitted, events are included regardless of their

outputEPCList

field or whether the

outputEPCList

field exists.

EPCIS Standard

Parameter name Parameter value

type

Meaning

MATCH_anyEPC

List of URIs If this parameter is specified, the result will only include events that (a) have an

epcList field, a childEPCs field, a parentID field, an inputEPCList field,

or an

outputEPCList field (that is, ObjectEvent, AggregationEvent,

TransactionEvent, TransformationEvent, AssociationEvent or

extension event types that extend one of those event types); and where (b) the

parentID field or one of the EPCs listed in the epcList, childEPCs,

inputEPCList, or outputEPCList field (depending on event type) matches one

of URIs specified in this parameter. The meaning of “matches” is as specified in

section 8.2.7.1.1

MATCH_epcClass

List of URIs If this parameter is specified, the result will only include events that (a) have a

quantityList or a childQuantityList field (that is, ObjectEvent,

AggregationEvent, TransactionEvent, AssociationEvent or

extension event types that extend one of those event types); and where (b) one of

the EPC classes listed in the

quantityList or childQuantityList field

(depending on event type) matches one of the EPC patterns or URIs specified in

this parameter. The result will also include

QuantityEvents whose epcClass

field matches one of the URIs specified in this parameter. The meaning of

“matches” is as specified in section 8.2.7.1.1

MATCH_inputEPCClass

List of URIs If this parameter is specified, the result will only include events that (a) have an

inputQuantityList field (that is, TransformationEvent or extension event

types that extend it); and where (b) one of the EPC classes listed in the

inputQuantityList field (depending on event type) matches one of the EPC

patterns or URIs specified in this parameter. The meaning of “matches” is as

specified in section 8.2.7.1.1

MATCH_outputEPCClass

List of URIs If this parameter is specified, the result will only include events that (a) have an

outputQuantityList field (that is, TransformationEvent or extension event

types that extend it); and where (b) one of the EPC classes listed in the

outputQuantityList field (depending on event type) matches one of the URIs

specified in this parameter. The meaning of “matches” is as specified in section

8.2.7.1.1

EPCIS Standard

Parameter name Parameter value

type

Meaning

MATCH_anyEPCClass

List of URIs If this parameter is specified, the result will only include events that (a) have a

quantityList, childQuantityList, inputQuantityList, or

outputQuantityList field (that is, ObjectEvent, AggregationEvent,

TransactionEvent, TransformationEvent, AssociationEvent or

extension event types that extend one of those event types); and where (b) one of

the EPC classes listed in any of those fields matches one of the EPC patterns or

URIs specified in this parameter. The result will also include

QuantityEvents

whose

epcClass field matches one of the URIs specified in this parameter. The

meaning of “matches” is as specified in section 8.2.7.1.1

EQ_quantity

Double (DEPCRECATED in EPCIS 1.1, REPURPOSED in EPCIS 2.0) If this parameter is

specified, the result will only include events that (a) have a

quantity field as part

of a

QuantityElement; and where (b) the quantity field is equal to the

specified parameter.

EQ_quantity_uom

Double If this parameter is specified, the result will only include events that (a) have a

quantity and a uom field as part of a QuantityElement; and where (b) a pair

quantity and uom is equal to or – in case the query includes a uom value that

is different from those in the events – corresponds to the specified parameter.

If omitted, events are in included regardless of the values of their quantity and

uom

fields.

GT_quantity

Double

(DEPCRECATED in EPCIS 1.1, REPURPOSED in EPCIS 2.0) Like EQ_quantity, but

includes events whose

quantity

field is greater than the specified parameter.

GT_quantity_uom

Double

EQ_quantity_uom, but includes events whose quantity-uom-pair (or a

corresponding

quantity-uom-pair when an alternative uom is applied) is greater

than the specified parameter.

GE_quantity

Double

(DEPCRECATED in EPCIS 1.1, REPURPOSED in EPCIS 2.0) Like

EQ_quantity,

but includes events whose

quantity field is greater than or equal to the specified

parameter.

GE_quantity_uom

Double

EQ_quantity_uom, but includes events whose quantity-uom-pair (or a

corresponding

quantity-uom-pair when an alternative uom is applied) is greater

than or equal to the specified parameter.

LT_quantity

Double

(DEPCRECATED in EPCIS 1.1, REPURPOSED in EPCIS 2.0) Like EQ_quantity, but

includes events whose

quantity

field is less than the specified parameter.

EPCIS Standard

Parameter name Parameter value

type

Meaning

LT_quantity_uom

Double

EQ_quantity_uom, but includes events whose quantity-uom-pair (or a

corresponding

quantity-uom-pair when an alternative uom is applied) is less

than the specified parameter.

LE_quantity

Double

(DEPCRECATED in EPCIS 1.1, REPURPOSED in EPCIS 2.0) Like

EQ_quantity, but

includes events whose

quantity field is less than or equal to the specified

parameter.

LE_quantity_uom

Double

EQ_quantity_uom, but includes events whose quantity-uom-pair (or a

corresponding

quantity-uom-pair when an alternative uom is applied) is less

than or equal to the specified parameter.

EQ_fieldname

List of String This is not a single parameter, but a family of parameters.

If a parameter of this form is specified, the result will only include events that (a)

have a top-level extension field named

fieldname whose type is either String or

a vocabulary type; and where (b) the value of that field matches one of the values

specified in this parameter.

fieldname is the fully qualified name of a top-level extension field. The name of

an extension field is an XML qname; that is, a pair consisting of an XML

namespace URI and a name. The name of the corresponding query parameter is

constructed by concatenating the following: the string

EQ_, the namespace URI

for the extension field, a pound sign (

#), and the name of the extension field.

“Top level” means that the matching extension data field must be nested as an

immediate child attribute of the containing EPCIS event, not a data field nested

within a top-level event extension or class. See EQ_INNER_fieldname for querying

data fields nested within extension elements / classes.

EQ_fieldname

Int

Float

DateTimeStamp

Double

EQ_fieldname as described above, but may be applied to a field of type Int,

Float, Double or Time. The result will include events that (a) have a field named

fieldname; and where (b) the type of the field matches the type of this

parameter (Int, Float, Double or Time); and where (c) the value of the field is

equal to the specified value.

fieldname

is constructed as for

EQ_fieldname

EPCIS Standard

Parameter name Parameter value

type

Meaning

GT_fieldname

Int

Float

DateTimeStamp

Double

EQ_fieldname as described above, but may be applied to a field of type

Int, Float, Double or Time. The result will include events that (a) have a field

named

fieldname; and where (b) the type of the field matches the type of this

parameter (Int, Float, Double or Time); and where (c) the value of the field is

greater than the specified value.

fieldname

is constructed as for

EQ_fieldname

GE_fieldname

LT_fieldname

LE_fieldname

Int

Float

DateTimeStamp

Double

Analogous to

GT_fieldname

EQ_ILMD_fieldname

List of String This is not a single parameter, but a family of parameters.

Analogous to

EQ_fieldname, but matches events whose ILMD area (section

7.3.8

) contains a top-level field having the specified fieldname whose value

matches one of the specified values. “Top level” means that the matching ILMD

field must be an immediate child of the

<ilmd> element, not an element nested

within such an element. See

EQ_INNER_ILMD_fieldname for querying inner

extension elements.

EQ_ILMD_fieldname

Int

Float

DateTimeStamp

Double

EQ_ILMD_fieldname as described above, but may be applied to a field of

type Int, Float, Double or Time. The result will include events that (a) have an

ILMD field named

fieldname; and where (b) the type of the field matches the

type of this parameter (Int, Float, Double or Time); and where (c) the value of the

field is equal to the specified value.

fieldname

is constructed as for

EQ_ILMD_fieldname

GT_ILMD_fieldname

GE_ILMD_fieldname

LT_ILMD_fieldname

LE_ILMD_

fieldname

Int

Float

DateTimeStamp

Double

Analogous to

EQ_fieldname, GT_fieldname, GE_fieldname,

GE_fieldname, LT_fieldname, and LE_fieldname, respectively, but

matches events whose ILMD (section 7.3.8

) contains a field having the specified

fieldname whose integer, float, double-precision float or time value matches

the specified value according to the specified relational operator.

EPCIS Standard

Parameter name Parameter value

type

Meaning

EQ_INNER_fieldname

List of String

Analogous to

EQ_fieldname, but matches inner extension fields; that is, any

XML field nested at any level within a top-level extension element. Note that a

matching inner field may exist within more than one top-level element or may

occur more than once within a single top-level element; this parameter matches if

at least one matching occurrence is found anywhere in the event (except at top-

level).

Note that unlike a top-level extension element, an inner extension element may

have a null XML namespace. To match such an inner element, the empty string is

used in place of the XML namespace when constructing the query parameter

name. For example, to match inner element

<elt1> with no XML namespace, the

query parameter would be

EQ_INNER_#elt1

EQ_INNER_fieldname

Int

Float

DateTimeStamp

Double

EQ_INNER_fieldname as described above, but may be applied to a field of

type Int, Float, Double or Time. The result will include events that (a) have an

inner extension (nested) field named

fieldname; and where (b) the type of the

field matches the type of this parameter (Int, Float, Double or Time); and where

fieldname

is constructed as for

EQ_INNER_fieldname

GT_INNER_fieldname

GE_INNER_fieldname

LT_INNER_fieldname

LE_INNER_

fieldname

Int

Float

DateTimeStamp

Double

EQ_INNER_fieldname as described above, but may be applied to a field

of type Int, Float, Double or Time.

EQ_INNER_ILMD_fieldname

List of String

Analogous to

EQ_ILMD_fieldname, but matches inner ILMD elements; that is,

any XML field nested at any level within a top-level ILMD element. Note that a

matching inner field may exist within more than one top-level element or may

occur more than once within a single top-level element; this parameter matches if

at least one matching occurrence is found anywhere in the ILMD section (except at

top-level).

GT_INNER_ILMD_fieldname

GE_INNER_ILMD_fieldname

LT_INNER_ILMD_fieldname

LE_INNER_ILMD_

fieldname

Int

Float

DateTimeStamp

Double

EQ_INNER_ILMD_fieldname as described above, but may be applied to

a field of type Int, Float, Double or Time.

EPCIS Standard

Parameter name Parameter value

type

Meaning

EXISTS_fieldname

Void

EQ_fieldname as described above, but may be applied to a field of any

type (including complex types). The result will include events that have a non-

empty field named

fieldname.

Fieldname is constructed as for EQ_fieldname.

Note that the value for this query parameter is ignored.

EXISTS_INNER_fieldname

Void

EXISTS_fieldname as described above, but includes events that have a

non-empty inner extension field named

fieldname.

Note that the value for this query parameter is ignored.

EXISTS_ILMD_fieldname

Void

EXISTS_fieldname as described above, but events that have a non-

empty field named

fieldname in the ILMD area (section 7.3.8).

Fieldname is constructed as for EQ_ILMD_fieldname.

Note that the value for this query parameter is ignored.

EXISTS_INNER_ILMD_fieldname

Void

EXISTS_ILMD_fieldname as described above, but includes events that

have a non-empty inner extension field named

fieldname within the ILMD area.

Note that the value for this query parameter is ignored.

HASATTR_fieldname

List of String This is not a single parameter, but a family of parameters.

If a parameter of this form is specified, the result will only include events that (a)

have a field named

fieldname whose type is a vocabulary type; and (b) where

the value of that field is a vocabulary element for which master data is available;

and (c) the master data has a non-null attribute whose name matches one of the

values specified in this parameter.

Fieldname is the fully qualified name of a field. For a standard field, this is

simply the field name; e.g.,

bizLocation. For an extension field, the name of

an extension field is an XML qname; that is, a pair consisting of an XML

namespace URI and a name. The name of the corresponding query parameter is

constructed by concatenating the following: the string

HASATTR_, the namespace

URI for the extension field, a pound sign (

), and the name of the extension field.

EPCIS Standard

Parameter name Parameter value

type

Meaning

EQ_ATTR_fieldname_attrname

List of String This is not a single parameter, but a family of parameters.

If a parameter of this form is specified, the result will only include events that (a)

have a field named

fieldname whose type is a vocabulary type; and (b) where

the value of that field is a vocabulary element for which master data is available;

and (c) the master data has a non-null attribute named

attrname; and (d)

where the value of that attribute matches one of the values specified in this

parameter.

fieldname is constructed as for HASATTR_fieldname.

The implementation MAY raise a

QueryParameterException if fieldname

attrname includes an underscore character.

Explanation (non-normative): because the presence of an underscore in

fieldname or attrname presents an ambiguity as to where the division

between fieldname and attrname lies, an implementation is free to reject

the query parameter if it cannot disambiguate.

EQ_ATTR_fieldname_attrname

Int

Float

DateTimeStamp

Double

EQ_ATTR_fieldname_attrname as described above, but may be applied

to a field of type Int, Float, Double or Time. The result will only include events that

(a) have a field named

fieldname whose type is a vocabulary type; and (b)

where the value of that field is a vocabulary element for which master data is

available; and (c) the master data has a non-null attribute named

attrname;

and where (b) the type of the field matches the type of this parameter (Int, Float,

Double or Time); and where (c) the value of the field is equal to the specified

value.

fieldname_attrname is constructed as for

EQ_ATTR_fieldname_attrname

EQ_eventID

List of URIs If this parameter is specified, the result will only include events that (a) have a

non-null

eventID field; and where (b) the eventID field is equal to one of the

values specified in this parameter.

If this parameter is omitted, events are returned regardless of the value of the

eventID

field or whether the

eventID

field exists at all.

EPCIS Standard

Parameter name Parameter value

type

Meaning

EXISTS_errorDeclaration

Void If this parameter is specified, the result will only include events that contain an

ErrorDeclaration.

If this parameter is omitted, events are returned regardless of whether they

contain an

ErrorDeclaration

GE_errorDeclarationTime

DateTimeStamp If this parameter is specified, the result will only include events that (a) contain an

ErrorDeclaration; and where (b) the value of the errorDeclarationTime

field is greater than or equal to the specified value.

If this parameter is omitted, events are returned regardless of whether they

contain an

ErrorDeclaration or what the value of the

errorDeclarationTime

field is.

LT_errorDeclarationTime

DateTimeStamp If this parameter is specified, the result will only include events that (a) contain an

ErrorDeclaration; and where (b) the value of the errorDeclarationTime

field is less than to the specified value.

If this parameter is omitted, events are returned regardless of whether they

contain an

ErrorDeclaration or what the value of the

errorDeclarationTime

field is.

EQ_errorReason

List of URIs If this parameter is specified, the result will only include events that (a) contain an

ErrorDeclaration; and where (b) the error declaration contains a non-null

reason field; and where (c) the reason field is equal to one of the values

specified in this parameter.

If this parameter is omitted, events are returned regardless of whether they

contain an

ErrorDeclaration

or what the value of the

reason

field is.

EQ_correctiveEventID

List of URIs If this parameter is specified, the result will only include events that (a) contain an

ErrorDeclaration; and where (b) one of the elements of the

correctiveEventIDs list is equal to one of the values specified in this

parameter.

If this parameter is omitted, events are returned regardless of whether they

contain an

ErrorDeclaration or the contents of the correctiveEventIDs

list.

EQ_ERROR_DECLARATION_fieldname

List of String

Analogous to EQ_fieldname, but matches events containing an

ErrorDeclaration and where the ErrorDeclaration contains a field having

the specified

fieldname

whose value matches one of the specified values.

EPCIS Standard

Parameter name Parameter value

type

Meaning

EQ_ERROR_DECLARATION_fieldname

Int

Float

DateTimeStamp

Double

EQ_ERROR_DECLARATION_fieldname as described above, but may be

applied to a field of type Int, Float, Double or Time. The result will include events

whose

ErrorDeclaration (a) has a field named fieldname; and where (b)

the type of the field matches the type of this parameter (Int, Float, Double or

Time); and where (c) the value of the field is equal to the specified value.

fieldname

is constructed as for

EQ_ERROR_DECLARATION_fieldname

GT_ERROR_DECLARATION_fieldname

GE_ERROR_DECLARATION_fieldname

LT_ERROR_DECLARATION_fieldname

LE_ERROR_DECLARATION_fieldname

Int

Float

DateTimeStamp

Double

Analogous to

EQ_fieldname, GT_fieldname, GE_fieldname,

GE_fieldname, LT_fieldname, and LE_fieldname, respectively, but

matches events containing an

ErrorDeclaration and where the

ErrorDeclaration contains a field having the specified fieldname whose

integer, float, double-precision floating point or time value matches the specified

value according to the specified relational operator.

EQ_INNER_ERROR_DECLARATION_fieldname

List of String

Analogous to

EQ_ERROR_DECLARATION_fieldname, but matches inner

extension elements; that is, any XML field nested within a top-level extension

element. Note that a matching inner field may exist within more than one top-level

element or may occur more than once within a single top-level element; this

parameter matches if at least one matching occurrence is found anywhere in the

event (except at top-level).

EQ_INNER_ERROR_DECLARATION_fieldname

Int

Float

DateTimeStamp

Double

EQ_INNER_ERROR_DECLARATION_fieldname as described above, but

may be applied to a field of type Int, Float, Double or Time. The result will include

events whose inner extension element

ErrorDeclaration (a) has a field

named

fieldname; and where (b) the type of the field matches the type of this

parameter (Int, Float, Double or Time); and where (c) the value of the field is

equal to the specified value.

fieldname is constructed as for

EQ_INNER_ERROR_DECLARATION_fieldname

GT_INNER_ERROR_DECLARATION_fieldname

GE_INNER_ERROR_DECLARATION_fieldname

LT_INNER_ERROR_DECLARATION_fieldname

LE_INNER_ERROR_DECLARATION_

fieldname

Int

Float

DateTimeStamp

Double

EQ_INNER_ERROR_DECLARATION_fieldname as described above, but

may be applied to a field of type Int, Float, Double or Time.

EPCIS Standard

Parameter name Parameter value

type

Meaning

EXISTS_ERROR_DECLARATION_fieldname

Void

EXISTS_fieldname as described above, but events that have an error

declaration containing a non-empty extension field named

fieldname.

Fieldname is constructed as for EQ_ERROR_DECLARATION_fieldname.

Note that the value for this query parameter is ignored

EXISTS_INNER_ERROR_DECLARATION_fieldname

Void

EXISTS_ERROR_DECLARATION_fieldname as described above, but

includes events that have an error declaration containing a non-empty inner

extension field named

fieldname.

Note that the value for this query parameter is ignored.

orderBy

String If specified, names a single field that will be used to order the results. The

orderDirection field specifies whether the ordering is in ascending sequence

or descending sequence. Events included in the result that lack the specified field

altogether may occur in any position within the result event list.

The value of this parameter SHALL be one of:

eventTime, recordTime, or

the fully qualified name of an extension field whose type is Int, Float, Double,

Time, or String. A fully qualified fieldname is constructed as for the

EQ_fieldname parameter.

In the case of a field of type String, sorting SHALL be according to their case-

sensitive lexical ordering, considering UTF-8/ASCII code values of each successive

character.

If omitted, no order is specified. The implementation MAY order the results in any

order it chooses, and that order MAY differ even when the same query is executed

twice on the same data.

(In EPCIS 1.0, the value

quantity was also permitted, but its use is deprecated

in EPCIS 1.1.)

orderDirection

String

If specified and

orderBy is also specified, specifies whether the results are

ordered in ascending or descending sequence according to the key specified by

orderBy. The value of this parameter must be one of ASC (for ascending order)

DESC (for descending order); if not, the implementation SHALL raise a

QueryParameterException.

If omitted, defaults to

DESC

EPCIS Standard

Parameter name Parameter value

type

Meaning

eventCountLimit

Int If specified, the results will only include the first N events that match the other

criteria, where N is the value of this parameter. The ordering specified by the

orderBy and orderDirection parameters determine the meaning of “first”

for this purpose.

If omitted, all events matching the specified criteria will be included in the results.

This parameter and

maxEventCount are mutually exclusive; if both are

specified, a

QueryParameterException SHALL be raised.

This parameter may only be used when

orderBy is specified; if orderBy is

omitted and

eventCountLimit is specified, a

QueryParameterException SHALL be raised.

This parameter differs from

maxEventCount in that this parameter limits the

amount of data returned, whereas

maxEventCount causes an exception to be

thrown if the limit is exceeded.

Explanation (non-normative): A common use of the orderBy,

orderDirection, and eventCountLimit parameters is for extremal

queries. For example, to select the most recent event matching some

criteria, the query would include parameters that select events matching

the desired criteria, and set orderBy to eventTime, orderDirection to

DESC, and eventCountLimit to one.

maxEventCount

Int If specified, at most this many events will be included in the query result. If the

query would otherwise return more than this number of events, a

QueryTooLargeException SHALL be raised instead of a normal query result.

This parameter and

eventCountLimit are mutually exclusive; if both are

specified, a

QueryParameterException SHALL be raised.

If this parameter is omitted, any number of events may be included in the query

result. Note, however, that the EPCIS implementation is free to raise a

QueryTooLargeException regardless of the setting of this parameter (see

section 8.2.3

EPCIS Standard

Parameter name Parameter value

type

Meaning

GE_startTime

DateTimeStamp

If specified, only events with

startTime greater than or equal to the specified

value will be included in the result.

If omitted, events are included regardless of their startTime (unless

constrained by the

LT_startTime

parameter).

LT_startTime

DateTimeStamp

If specified, only events with

startTime less than the specified value will be

included in the result.

If omitted, events are included regardless of their startTime (unless

constrained by the

GE_startTime

parameter).

GE_endTime

DateTimeStamp

If specified, only events with

endTime greater than or equal to the specified

value will be included in the result.

If omitted, events are included regardless of their endTime (unless constrained

by the

LT_endTime

parameter).

LT_endTime

DateTimeStamp

If specified, only events with

endTime less than the specified value will be

included in the result.

If omitted, events are included regardless of their endTime (unless constrained

by the

GE_startTime

parameter).

EQ_type

List of URIs If this parameter is specified, the result will only include events that (a)

accommodate one or more

sensorElement fields; and where (b) the type

attribute in one of these

sensorElement fields is equal to one of the values

specified in this parameter.

If this parameter is omitted, events are returned regardless of the value of the

type

attribute or whether a

sensorElement

field exists at all.

EQ_deviceID

List of URIs If this parameter is specified, the result will only include events that (a)

accommodate a

deviceID attribute; and where (b) the deviceID attribute is

equal to one of the URIs specified in this parameter.

If this parameter is omitted, events are returned regardless of the value of the

deviceID

attribute or whether the

deviceID

attribute exists at all.

EPCIS Standard

Parameter name Parameter value

type

Meaning

EQ_dataProcessingMethod

List of URIs If this parameter is specified, the result will only include events that (a)

accommodate a

dataProcessingMethod attribute; and where (b) the

dataProcessingMethod attribute is equal to one of the URIs specified in this

parameter.

If this parameter is omitted, events are returned regardless of the value of the

dataProcessingMethod attribute or whether the

dataProcessingMethod

attribute exists at all.

EQ_microorganism

List of URIs If this parameter is specified, the result will only include events that (a)

accommodate a

microorganism attribute; and where (b) the

microorganism attribute is equal to one of the URIs specified in this

parameter.

If this parameter is omitted, events are returned regardless of the value of the

microorganism attribute or whether the microorganism attribute exists at

all.

EQ_chemicalSubstance

List of URIs If this parameter is specified, the result will only include events that (a)

accommodate a

chemicalSubstance attribute; and where (b) the

chemicalSubstance attribute is equal to one of the URIs specified in this

parameter.

If this parameter is omitted, events are returned regardless of the value of the

chemicalSubstance attribute or whether the chemicalSubstance

attribute exists at all.

EQ_bizRules

List of URIs If this parameter is specified, the result will only include events that (a)

accommodate a

bizRules attribute; and where (b) the bizRules attribute is

equal to one of the values specified in this parameter.

If this parameter is omitted, events are returned regardless of the value of the

bizRules

attribute or whether the

bizRules

attribute exists at all.

EQ_value_uom

List of Double If this parameter is specified, the result will only include events that (a) have a

uom and a value attribute; and where (b) a pair of uom and value is equal or –

in case the query includes a

uom value that is different from those in the events –

corresponds to the specified parameter.

If omitted, events are in included regardless of the values of their

uom and value

attributes.

EPCIS Standard

Parameter name Parameter value

type

Meaning

GT_value_uom

GE_value_uom

LT_value_uom

LE_value_

uom

Double

Analogous to

EQ_uom_value, but includes events whose uom-value-pair (or a

corresponding

uom-value-pair when an alternative uom is applied) matches the

specified relational operator; GT = greater than (>), GE = greater than or equal to

(>=), LT = less than (<), LE = less than or equal to (<=).

GT_minValue_

uom

Double Like

GT_value_

uom, but pertaining to the

minValue

attribute.

GE_minValue_uom

Double

Like GE_value_uom, but pertaining to the minValue attribute.

LT_minValue_

uom

Double Like

LT_value_

uom, but pertaining to the

minValue

attribute.

LE_minValue_

uom

Double Like

LE_value_

uom, but pertaining to the

minValue

attribute.

GE_maxValue_

uom

Double Like GE_value_uom, but pertaining to the maxValue attribute.

LT_maxValue_

uom

Double Like

LT_value_

uom, but pertaining to the

maxValue

attribute.

GT_meanValue_

uom

Double Like

GT_value_

uom, but pertaining to the

meanValue

attribute.

GE_meanValue_

uom

Double Like

GE_value_

uom, but pertaining to the

meanValue

attribute.

LT_meanValue_

uom

Double Like

LT_value_

uom, but pertaining to the

meanValue

attribute.

LE_meanValue_

uom

Double Like

LE_value_

uom, but pertaining to the

meanValue

attribute.

GT_sDev_

uom

Double Like GT_value_uom, but pertaining to the sDev attribute.

GE_sDev_

uom

Double Like

GE_value_

uom, but pertaining to the

sDev

attribute.

LT_sDev_

uom

Double Like

LT_value_

uom, but pertaining to the

sDev

attribute.

LE_sDev_

uom

Double Like

LE_value_

uom, but pertaining to the

sDev

attribute.

EQ_stringValue

List of String If this parameter is specified, the result will only include events that (a)

accommodate a

stringValue attribute; and where (b) the stringValue

attribute is equal to one of the specified parameter.

If this parameter is omitted, events are returned regardless of the value of the

stringValue

attribute or whether the

stringValue

attribute exists at all.

EPCIS Standard

Parameter name Parameter value

type

Meaning

EQ_booleanValue

Boolean If this parameter is specified, the result will only include events that (a)

accommodate a booleanValue attribute; and where (b) the booleanValue

attribute is equal to the specified value (i.e. ‘true’ or ‘false’).

If this parameter is omitted, events are returned regardless of the value of the

booleanValue

attribute or whether the

booleanValue

attribute exists at all.

EQ_hexBinaryValue

List of String If this parameter is specified, the result will only include events that (a)

accommodate a

hexBinaryValue attribute; and where (b) the

hexBinaryValue attribute is equal to one of the values specified in this

parameter.

If this parameter is omitted, events are returned regardless of the value of the

hexBinaryValue attribute or whether the hexBinaryValue attribute exists at

all.

EQ_uriValue

List of URIs If this parameter is specified, the result will only include events that (a)

accommodate a

uriValue attribute; and where (b) the uriValue attribute is

equal to one of the URIs specified in this parameter.

If this parameter is omitted, events are returned regardless of the value of the

uriValue

attribute or whether the

uriValue

attribute exists at all.

EQ_SENSORELEMENT_fieldname

List of String

Analogous to EQ_fieldname, but matches events containing a

SensorElement and where the SensorElement contains a field having the

specified

fieldname

whose value matches one of the specified values.

EQ_SENSORELEMENT_fieldname

Int

DateTimeStamp

Double

EQ_SENSORELEMENT_fieldname as described above, but may be applied

to a field of type Int, Double or Time. The result will include events whose

SensorElement (a) has a field named fieldname; and where (b) the type of

the field matches the type of this parameter (integer, double-precision or time);

and where (c) the value of the field is equal to the specified value.

fieldname

is constructed as for

EQ_SENSORELEMENT_fieldname

GT_SENSORELEMENT_fieldname

GE_SENSORELEMENT_fieldname

LT_SENSORELEMENT_fieldname

LE_SENSORELEMENT_fieldname

Int

DateTimeStamp

Double

Analogous to

EQ_fieldname, GT_fieldname, GE_fieldname,

GE_fieldname, LT_fieldname, and LE_fieldname, respectively, but

matches events containing a

SensorElement and where the SensorElement

contains a field having the specified

fieldname whose integer, double-precision,

or time value matches the specified value according to the specified relational

operator.

EPCIS Standard

Parameter name Parameter value

type

Meaning

EQ_INNER_SENSORELEMENT_fieldname

List of String

Analogous to

EQ_SENSORELEMENT_fieldname, but matches inner

extension elements (i.e., any XML field nested at any level within a top-level

extension element) containing a

SensorElement and where the

SensorElement contains a field having the specified fieldname whose value

matches one of the specified values.

EQ_INNER_SENSORELEMENT_fieldname

Int

DateTimeStamp

Double

EQ_INNER_ERROR_SENSORELEMENT_fieldname as described above,

but may be applied to a field of type Int, Double or Time. The result will include

events whose inner extension

SensorElement (a) has a field named

fieldname; and where (b) the type of the field matches the type of this

parameter (integer, double-precision or time); and where (c) the value of the field

is equal to the specified value.

fieldname is constructed as for

EQ_INNER_SENSORELEMENT_fieldname

GT_INNER_SENSORELEMENT_fieldname

GE_INNER_SENSORELEMENT_fieldname

LT_INNER_SENSORELEMENT_fieldname

LE_INNER_SENSORELEMENT_fieldname

Int

DateTimeStamp

Double

Analogous to

EQ_fieldname, GT_fieldname, GE_fieldname,

GE_fieldname, LT_fieldname, and LE_fieldname, respectively, but

matches inner extension elements (i.e., any XML field nested at any level within

a top-level extension element) containing a

SensorElement and where the

SensorElement contains a field having the specified fieldname whose

integer, double-precision, or time value matches the specified value according to

the specified relational operator.

EQ_SENSORMETADATA_fieldname

List of String

Analogous to

EQ_fieldname, but matches events containing a

SensorMetadata element and where the SensorMetadata element contains a

field having the specified

fieldname whose value matches one of the specified

values.

EQ_SENSORMETADATA_fieldname

Int

DateTimeStamp

Double

EQ_SENSORMETADATA_fieldname as described above, but may be

applied to a field of type Int, Double or Time. The result will include events whose

SensorMetadata element (a) has a field named fieldname; and where (b)

the type of the field matches the type of this parameter (integer, double-precision

or time); and where (c) the value of the field is equal to the specified value.

fieldname

is constructed as for

EQ_SENSORMETADATA_fieldname

EPCIS Standard

Parameter name Parameter value

type

Meaning

GT_SENSORMETADATA_fieldname

GE_SENSORMETADATA_fieldname

LT_SENSORMETADATA_fieldname

LE_SENSORMETADATA_fieldname

Int

DateTimeStamp

Double

Analogous to

EQ_fieldname, GT_fieldname, GE_fieldname,

GE_fieldname, LT_fieldname, and LE_fieldname, respectively, but

matches events containing a

SensorMetadata element and where the

SensorMetadata element contains a field having the specified fieldname

whose integer, double-precision, or time value matches the specified value

according to the specified relational operator.

EQ_INNER_SENSORMETADATA_fieldname

List of String

Analogous to

EQ_fieldname, but matches inner extension elements (i.e.,

any XML field nested at any level within a top-level extension element) containing

SensorMetadata element and where the SensorMetadata element contains

a field having the specified

fieldname whose value matches one of the specified

values.

EQ_INNER_SENSORMETADATA_fieldname

Int

DateTimeStamp

Double

EQ_INNER_SENSORMETADATA_fieldname as described above, but may

be applied to a field of type Int, Double or Time. The result will include events

whose inner extension

SensorMetadata element (a) has a field named

fieldname; and where (b) the type of the field matches the type of this

parameter (integer, double-precision or time); and where (c) the value of the field

is equal to the specified value.

fieldname is constructed as for

EQ_INNER_SENSORMETADATA_fieldname

GT_INNER_SENSORMETADATA_fieldname

GE_INNER_SENSORMETADATA_fieldname

LT_INNER_SENSORMETADATA_fieldname

LE_INNER_SENSORMETADATA_fieldname

Int

DateTimeStamp

Double

Analogous to

EQ_fieldname, GT_fieldname, GE_fieldname,

GE_fieldname, LT_fieldname, and LE_fieldname, respectively, but

matches inner extension elements (i.e., any XML field nested at any level within

a top-level extension element)containing a

SensorMetadata element and where

the

SensorMetadata element contains a field having the specified fieldname

whose integer, double-precision, or time value matches the specified value

according to the specified relational operator.

EQ_SENSORREPORT_fieldname

List of String

Analogous to EQ_fieldname, but matches events containing a SensorReport

element and where the

SensorReport element contains a field having the

specified

fieldname

whose value matches one of the specified values.

EPCIS Standard

Parameter name Parameter value

type

Meaning

EQ_SENSORREPORT_fieldname

Int

DateTimeStamp

Double

EQ_SENSORREPORT_fieldname as described above, but may be applied

to a field of type Int, Double or Time. The result will include events whose

SensorReport element (a) has a field named fieldname; and where (b) the

type of the field matches the type of this parameter (integer, double-precision or

time); and where (c) the value of the field is equal to the specified value.

fieldname

is constructed as for

EQ_SENSORREPORT_fieldname

GT_SENSORREPORT_fieldname

GE_SENSORREPORT_fieldname

LT_SENSORREPORT_fieldname

LE_SENSORREPORT_fieldname

Int

DateTimeStamp

Double

Analogous to

EQ_fieldname, GT_fieldname, GE_fieldname,

GE_fieldname, LT_fieldname, and LE_fieldname, respectively, but

matches events containing a

SensorReport element and where the

SensorReport element contains a field having the specified fieldname whose

integer, double-precision, or time value matches the specified value according to

the specified relational operator.

EQ_INNER_SENSOREPORT_fieldname

List of String

Analogous to

EQ_SENSOREPORT_fieldname, but matches inner extension

elements (i.e., any XML field nested at any level within a top-level extension

element) containing a

SensorReport and where the SensorReportcontains a

field having the specified

fieldname whose value matches one of the specified

values.

EQ_INNER_SENSOREPORT_fieldname

Int

DateTimeStamp

Double

EQ_INNER_SENSORREPORT_fieldname as described above, but may be

applied to a field of type Int, Double or Time. The result will include events whose

inner extension

SensorReport element (a) has a field named fieldname;

and where (b) the type of the field matches the type of this parameter (integer,

double-precision or time); and where (c) the value of the field is equal to the

specified value.

fieldname

is constructed as for

EQ_INNER_SENSORREPORT_fieldname

GT_INNER_SENSOREPORT_fieldname

GE_INNER_SENSOREPORT_fieldname

LT_INNER_SENSOREPORT_fieldname

LE_INNER_SENSOREPORT_fieldname

Int

DateTimeStamp

Double

Analogous to

EQ_fieldname, GT_fieldname, GE_fieldname,

GE_fieldname, LT_fieldname, and LE_fieldname, respectively, but

matches inner extension elements (i.e., any XML field nested at any level within

a top-level extension element) containing a

SensorElement and where the

SensorReport contains a field having the specified fieldname whose integer,

double-precision, or time value matches the specified value according to the

specified relational operator.

EPCIS Standard

Parameter name Parameter value

type

Meaning

EXISTS_SENSORELEMENT_fieldname

Void

EXISTS_fieldname as described above, but events that have a

SensorElement containing a non-empty extension field named fieldname.

Fieldname is constructed as for EQ_SENSORELEMENT_fieldname.

Note that the value for this query parameter is ignored.

EXISTS_SENSORMETADATA_fieldname

Void

EXISTS_fieldname as described above, but events that have a

SensorMetadata element containing a non-empty extension field named

fieldname.

Fieldname is constructed as for EQ_SENSORMETADATA_fieldname.

Note that the value for this query parameter is ignored.

EXISTS_SENSORREPORT_fieldname

Void

EXISTS_fieldname as described above, but events that have a

SensorReport element containing a non-empty extension field named

fieldname.

Fieldname is constructed as for EQ_SENSORREPORT_fieldname.

Note that the value for this query parameter is ignored.

GE_percRank

Double If this parameter is specified, the result will only include events that (a) have a

percRank attribute; and where (b) a value of percRank is greater than or equal

to the specified parameter.

NOTE: since percRank and percValue should be specified together in the data,

if present, it may be appropriate for EPCIS queries to express a query constraint of

both

percRank

and

percValue

together (i.e., not independently of each other).

LT_percRank

Double If this parameter is specified, the result will only include events that (a) have a

percRank attribute; and where (b) a value of percRank is less than the specified

parameter.

NOTE: since percRank and percValue should be specified together in the data,

if present, it may be appropriate for EPCIS queries to express a query constraint of

both

percRank

and

percValue

together (i.e., not independently of each other).

GE_percValue_uom

Double If this parameter is specified, the result will only include events that (a) have a

percValue attribute; and where (b) a value of percValue is greater than or

equal to the specified parameter.

NOTE: since percRank and percValue should be specified together in the data,

if present, it may be appropriate for EPCIS queries to express a query constraint of

both

percRank

and

percValue

together (i.e., not independently of each other).

EPCIS Standard

Parameter name Parameter value

type

Meaning

GT_percValue_uom

Double If this parameter is specified, the result will only include events that (a) have a

percValue attribute; and where (b) a value of percValue is greater than the

specified parameter.

NOTE: since percRank and percValue should be specified together in the data,

if present, it may be appropriate for EPCIS queries to express a query constraint of

both

percRank

and

percValue

together (i.e., not independently of each other).

LE_percValue_uom

Double If this parameter is specified, the result will only include events that (a) have a

percValue attribute; and where (b) a value of percValue is less than or equal

to the specified parameter.

NOTE: since

percRank and percValue should be specified together in the data,

if present, it may be appropriate for EPCIS queries to express a query constraint of

both

percRank and percValue together (i.e., not independently of each other).

LT_percValue_uom

Double If this parameter is specified, the result will only include events that (a) have a

percValue attribute; and where (b) a value of percValue is less than the

specified parameter.

NOTE: since

percRank and percValue should be specified together in the data,

if present, it may be appropriate for EPCIS queries to express a query constraint of

both

percRank and percValue together (i.e., not independently of each other).

As the descriptions above suggest, if multiple parameters are specified an event must satisfy all criteria in order to be included in the result set. In other

words, if each parameter is considered to be a predicate, all such predicates are implicitly conjoined as though by an AND operator. For example, if a

given call to

poll specifies a value for both the EQ_bizStep and EQ_disposition parameters, then an event must match one of the specified

bizStep values AND match one of the specified disposition values in order to be included in the result.

On the other hand, for those parameters whose value is a list, an event must match at least one of the elements of the list in order to be included in the

result set. In other words, if each element of the list is considered to be a predicate, all such predicates for a given list are implicitly disjoined as though

by an OR operator. For example, if the value of the

EQ_bizStep parameter is a two-element list (“bs1”, “bs2”), then an event is included if its bizStep

field contains the value bs1 OR its bizStep field contains the value bs2.

As another example, if the value of the EQ_bizStep parameter is a two-element list (“bs1”, “bs2”) and the EQ_disposition parameter is a two-

element list (“

d1”, “d2”), then the effect is to include events satisfying the following predicate:

((bizStep = “bs1” OR bizStep = “bs2”)

AND (disposition = “d1” OR disposition = “d2”))

EPCIS Standard

8.2.7.1.1 Processing of MATCH query parameters

The parameter list for MATCH_epc, MATCH_parentID, MATCH_inputEPC, MATCH_outputEPC, and MATCH_anyEPC SHALL be processed as follows. Each

element of the parameter list may be a pure identity pattern as specified in [TDS], or any other URI. If the element is a pure identity pattern, it is

matched against event field values using the procedure for matching identity patterns specified in [TDS1.9]. If the element is any other URI, it is matched

against event field values by testing string equality.

The parameter list for

MATCH_epcClass, MATCH_inputEPCClass, MATCH_outputEPCClass, and MATCH_anyEPCClass SHALL be processed as

follows. Let P be one of the patterns specified in the value for this parameter, and let C be the value of an

epcClass field in the appropriate quantity list

of an event being considered for inclusion in the result. Then the event is included if each component Pi of P matches the corresponding component Ci of

C, where “matches” is as defined in [TDS].

Non-Normative: Explanation: The difference between MATCH_epcClass and MATCH_epc, and similar parameters, is that for MATCH_epcClass the

value in the event (the epcClass field in a quantity list) may itself be a Pure Identity EPC Pattern URI, as specified in TDS). This means that the

value in the event may contain a ‘*’ component. The above specification says that a ‘*’ in the EPCClass field of an event is only matched by a ‘*’ in

the query parameter. For example, if the epcClass field within an event is urn:epc:idpat:sgtin:9521321.112345.*, then this event would be

matched by the query parameter urn:epc:idpat:sgtin:9521321.*.* or by urn:epc:idpat:sgtin:9521321.112345.*, but not by

urn:epc:idpat:sgtin:9521321.112345.400.

8.2.7.2 SimpleMasterDataQuery - REMOVED in EPCIS 2.0

8.2.8 Query callback interface

The Query Callback Interface is the path by which an EPCIS service delivers standing query results to a client.

<<interface>>

EPCISQueryCallbackInterface

---

callbackResults(resultData : QueryResults) : void

callbackQueryTooLargeException(e : QueryTooLargeException) : void

callbackImplementationException(e : ImplementationException) : void

Each time the EPCIS service executes a standing query according to the QuerySchedule, it SHALL attempt to deliver results to the subscriber by

invoking one of the three methods of the Query Callback Interface. If the query executed normally, the EPCIS service SHALL invoke the

callbackResults method. If the query resulted in a QueryTooLargeException or ImplementationException, the EPCIS service SHALL invoke

the corresponding method of the Query Callback Interface.

EPCIS Standard

Note that “exceptions” in the Query Callback Interface are not exceptions in the usual sense of an API exception, because they are not raised as a

consequence of a client invoking a method. Instead, the exception is delivered to the recipient in a similar manner to a normal result, as an argument to

an interface method.

9 XML bindings for data definition modules

This section specifies a standard XML binding for the Core Event Types data definition module, using the W3C XML Schema language [XSD1, XSD2].

Samples are also shown.

The schema below conforms to GS1 standard schema design rules. The schema below imports the EPCglobal standard base schema, as mandated by the

design rules [XMLDR].

9.1 Extensibility mechanism

The XML schema in this section implements the <<extension point>> given in the UML of section 7 using a methodology described in [XMLVersioning].

This methodology provides for both vendor/user extension, and for extension by GS1 in future versions of this specification or in supplemental

specifications. Extensions introduced through this mechanism will be backward compatible, in that documents conforming to older versions of the schema

will also conform to newer versions of the standard schema and to schema containing vendor-specific extensions. Extensions will also be forward

compatible, in that documents that contain vendor/user extensions or that conform to newer versions of the standard schema will also conform to older

versions of the schema.

When a document contains extensions (vendor/user-specific or standardised in newer versions of schema), it may conform to more than one schema. For

example, a document containing vendor extensions to the GS1 Version 1.0 schema will conform both to the GS1 Version 1.0 schema and to a vendor-

specific schema that includes the vendor extensions. In this example, when the document is parsed using the standard schema there will be no validation

of the extension elements and attributes, but when the document is parsed using the vendor-specific schema the extensions will be validated. Similarly, a

document containing new features introduced in the GS1 Version 1.2 schema will conform to the GS1 Version 1.0 schema, the GS1 Version 1.1 schema,

and the GS1 Version 1.2 schema, but validation of the new features will only be available using the Version 1.2 schema.

The design rules for this extensibility pattern are given in [XMLVersioning]. In summary, it amounts to the following rules:

■ For each type in which

<<extension point>> occurs, include an xsd:anyAttribute declaration. This declaration provides for the addition of new

XML attributes, either in subsequent versions of the standard schema or in vendor/user-specific schema.

■ For each type in which

<<extension point>> occurs, include an optional (minOccurs = 0) element named extension. The type declared for the

extension element will always be as follows:

<xsd:sequence>

<xsd:any processContents="lax" minOccurs="1" maxOccurs="unbounded"

namespace="##local"/>

</xsd:sequence>

<xsd:anyAttribute processContents="lax"/>

EPCIS Standard

This declaration provides for forward-compatibility with new elements introduced into subsequent versions of the standard schema.

■ For each type in which <<extension point>> occurs, include at the end of the element list a declaration

<xsd:any processContents="lax" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded"

namespace="##other"/>

This declaration provides for forward-compatibility with new elements introduced in vendor/user-specific schema.

The rules for adding vendor/user-specific extensions to the schema are as follows:

■ Vendor/user-specific attributes may be added to any type in which <<extension point>> occurs. Vendor/user-specific attributes SHALL NOT be in

the EPCglobal EPCIS namespace

(urn:epcglobal:epcis:xsd:2) nor in the empty namespace. Vendor/user-specific attributes SHALL be in a

namespace whose namespace URI has the vendor as the owning authority. (In schema parlance, this means that all vendor/user-specific attributes

must have

qualified as their form.) For example, the namespace URI may be an HTTP URL whose authority portion is a domain name owned by the

vendor/user, a URN having a URN namespace identifier issued to the vendor/user by IANA, an OID URN whose initial path is a Private Enterprise

Number assigned to the vendor/user, etc. Declarations of vendor/user-specific attributes SHALL specify use="optional".

■ Vendor/user-specific elements may be added to any type in which <<extension point>> occurs. Vendor/user-specific elements SHALL NOT be in

the EPCglobal EPCIS namespace (urn:epcglobal:epcis:xsd:2) nor in the empty namespace. Vendor/user-specific elements SHALL be in a

namespace whose namespace URI has the vendor/user as the owning authority (as described above). (In schema parlance, this means that all

vendor/user-specific elements must have qualified as their form.)

To create a schema that contains vendor/user extensions, replace the <xsd:any … namespace=”##other”/> declaration with a content group

reference to a group defined in the vendor/user namespace; e.g.,

<xsd:group ref="vendor:VendorExtension">. In the schema file defining

elements for the vendor/user namespace, define a content group using a declaration of the following form:

<xsd:group name="VendorExtension">

<xsd:sequence>

<!--

Definitions or references to vendor elements

go here. Each SHALL specify minOccurs="0".

-->

<xsd:any processContents="lax"

minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded"

namespace="##other"/>

</xsd:sequence>

</xsd:group>

(In the foregoing illustrations, vendor and VendorExtension may be any strings the vendor/user chooses.)

EPCIS Standard

Non-Normative: Explanation: Because vendor/user-specific elements must be optional, including references to their definitions directly into the

EPCIS schema would violate the XML Schema Unique Particle Attribution constraint, because the

<xsd:any …> element in the EPCIS schema can

also match vendor/user-specific elements. Moving the <xsd:any …> into the vendor/user’s schema avoids this problem, because ##other in that

schema means “match an element that has a namespace other than the vendor/user’s namespace.” This does not conflict with standard elements,

because the element form default for the standard EPCIS schema is

unqualified, and hence the ##other in the vendor/user’s schema does not

match standard EPCIS elements, either.

Note: The rules for adding attributes or elements to future versions of the GS1 standard schema are as follows:

■ Standard attributes may be added to any type in which

<<extension point>> occurs. Standard attributes SHALL NOT be in any namespace (i.e.,

SHALL be in the empty namespace), and SHALL NOT conflict with any existing standard attribute name.

■ Standard elements may be added to any type in which

<<extension point>> occurs. New elements are added using the following rules:

□ Find the innermost

extension element type.

□ Replace the <xsd:any … namespace="##local"/> declaration with (a) new elements (which SHALL NOT be in any namespace; equivalently,

which SHALL be in the empty namespace); followed by (b) a new

extension element whose type is constructed as described before. In

subsequent revisions of the standard schema, new standard elements will be added within this new

extension element rather than within this

one.

Non-Normative: Explanation: the reason that new standard attributes and elements are specified above not to be in any namespace is to be

consistent with the EPCIS schema’s attribute and element form default of

unqualified.

As applied to the EPCIS 2.0 XML schema for core events (section 9.5), this results in the following:

Event types defined in EPCIS 1.0 appear within the <EventList> element.

Event types defined in EPCIS 1.1 (i.e., TransformationEvent) each appear within an <extension> element within the <EventList> element.

For event types defined in EPCIS 1.0, new fields added in EPCIS 1.1 appear within the <extension> element that follows the EPCIS 1.0 fields.

EventType (i.e.,

AssociationEvent) and additional fields (e.g., sensorElement) added to EPCIS 2.0 are not nested in additonal <extension>

elements; a set of XSL transformation tools published at https://ref.gs1.org/tools/epcis/xsl/

accompanies the EPCIS 2.0 major release, to support

implementer migration from EPCIS 1.2 to EPCIS 2.0.

For the TransformationEvent (defined in EPCIS 1.1), there is no <extension> element, as the entire event type is new in EPCIS 1.1. If additional fields

are added in a future version of EPCIS, they will appear within an

<extension> element following the fields defined in EPCIS 1.1.

EPCIS Standard

Note that the sensorElement (EPCIS 2.0) can be used in an AssociationEvent (EPCIS 2.0) without embedding, but must be embedded

through

<extension> elements if used in the TransformationEvent (EPCIS 1.1).

Vendor/user event-level extensions always appear just before the closing tag for the event (i.e., after any standard fields and any

element), and are always in a non-empty XML namespace. Under no circumstances do vendor/user extensions appear within an

<extension> element;

the

<extension> element is reserved for fields defined in the EPCIS standard itself.

Note: Examples (in XML and JSON/JSON-LD format) are published at https://ref.gs1.org/docs/epcis/examples/.

9.2 Standard business document header

The XML binding for the Core Event Types data definition module includes an optional EPCISHeader element, which may be used by industry groups to

incorporate additional information required for processing within that industry. The core schema includes a “Standard Business Document Header” (SBDH)

as defined in [SBDH] as an optional component of the EPCISHeader element. Industry groups MAY also require some other kind of header within the

EPCISHeader element in addition to the SBDH.

The XSD schema for the Standard Business Document Header may be obtained from the UN/CEFACT website; see [SBDH]. This schema is incorporated

herein by reference. GS1's SBDH Technical Implementation Guide [SBDHGS1] provides GS1-specific clarifications around the use of the SBDH.

When the Standard Business Document Header is included, the following values SHALL be used for those elements of the SBDH schema specified below.

SBDH Field (XPath) Value

HeaderVersion

1.0

DocumentIdentification/Standard

EPCglobal

DocumentIdentification/TypeVersion

1.0

DocumentIdentification/Type

As specified below.

The value for DocumentIdentification/Type SHALL be set according to the following table, which specifies a value for this field based on the kind of

EPCIS document and the context in which it is used.

Document Type and Context Value for

DocumentIdentification/Type

EPCISDocument

used in any context

Events

EPCISQueryDocument

used as the request side of the binding in section 11.3

QueryControl-Request

EPCISQueryDocument

used as the response side of the binding in section 11.3

QueryControl-Response

EPCIS Standard

Document Type and Context Value for

DocumentIdentification/Type

EPCISQueryDocument

used in any XML binding of the Query Callback interface (section 11.4.2 – 11.4.4)

QueryCallback

EPCISQueryDocument

used in any other context

Query

The AS2 binding for the Query Control Interface (section 11.3) also specifies additional Standard Business Document Header fields that must be present in

an EPCISQueryDocument instance used as a Query Control Interface response message. See section 11.3 for details.

In addition to the fields specified above, the Standard Business Document Header SHALL include all other fields that are required by the SBDH schema,

and MAY include additional SBDH fields. In all cases, the values for those fields SHALL be set in accordance with [SBDH]. An industry group MAY specify

additional constraints on SBDH contents to be used within that industry group, but such constraints SHALL be consistent with the specifications herein.

9.3 EPCglobal Base schema

The XML binding for the Core Event Types data definition module, as well as other XML bindings in this specification, refer to the EPCglobal Base Schema.

This schema is published at https://ref.gs1.org/standards/epcis/2.0.0/epcglobal.xsd

9.4 Master data in the XML binding

As noted in section 6.1.1, EPCIS provides two ways to transmit master data, supported by different parts of the XML schema specified in the remainder of

this section, as summarised in the following table:

Mechanism Schema Support

ILMD XML element contained within

ILMD

element

Header of

EPCIS

document

VocabularyElement within VocabularyList, as contained within EPCISHeader

Each master data attribute is a name/value pair, where the name part is a qualified name consisting of a namespace URI and a local name, and the value

is any data type expressible in XML. Regardless of which of the mechanisms above are used to transmit master data, the data transmitted SHALL always

use the same namespace URI and local name for a given attribute. The way the namespace URI and local name are encoded into XML, however, differs

depending on the mechanism:

■ For ILMD elements, the master data attribute SHALL be an XML element whose element name is a qualified name, where the prefix of the qualified

name is bound to the namespace URI of the master data attribute and the local name of the qualified name is the local name of the master data

attribute. The content of the element SHALL be the value of the master data attribute.

EPCIS Standard

■ For the mechanisms that use VocabularyElement, the id attribute of the VocabularyElement element SHALL be a string consisting of the

namespace URI, a pound sign (

#) character, and the local name. The content of the VocabularyElement element SHALL be the value of the master

data attribute.

Non-Normative: Example: Consider a master data attribute whose namespace URI is http://epcis.example.com/ns/md, whose local name is

myAttrName, and whose value is the string myAttrValue. Here is how that attribute would appear in an ILMD section:

<epcis:EPCISDocument

xmlns:epcis="urn:epcglobal:epcis:xsd:2"

xmlns:example="http://epcis.example.com/ns/md" ...>

...

...

<ILMD>

<example:myAttrName>myAttrValue</example:myAttrName>

...

</ObjectEvent>

...

</epcis:EPCISDocument>

And here is how that attribute would appear in a VocabularyElement:

<VocabularyElement

id="http://epcis.example.com/ns/md#myAttrName">

myAttrValue

</VocabularyElement>

(Newlines and whitespace have been added on either side of myAttrValue for clarity, but they would not be present in actual XML.)

The XML binding for the Core Event Types data definition module includes a facility for the inclusion of additional information in the

readPoint and

bizLocation fields of all event types by including additional subelements within those fields following the required id subelement. This facility was

originally conceived as a means to communicate master data for location identifiers. However, this facility is DEPRECATED as of EPCIS 1.2, and SHOULD

NOT be used in EPCIS data conforming to EPCIS 1.2 or later. One or more of the other mechanisms for communicating master data should be used

instead.

EPCIS Standard

Vendor extensions (including but not limited to FIT mappings) are tolerated in XML validation by lax processing of the ##other namespace.

9.5 Schema for core event types

The Core Event Types data definition module, an XML Schema (XSD) artefact, published at https://ref.gs1.org/standards/epcis/2.0.0/epcglobal-epcis-

2_0.xsd , imports additional schemas as shown in the following table:

Namespace Location Reference Source

urn:epcglobal:xsd:2

epcglobal.xsd

section

9.3

http://www.unece.org/cefact/namespaces/StandardBusine

ssDocumentHeader

StandardBusinessDocumentHeader.xsd UN/CEFACT web site; see section 9.2x

In addition to the constraints implied by the schema, any value of type xsd:dateTimeStamp in an instance document SHALL include a time zone

specifier (either “

Z” for UTC or an explicit offset from UTC).

For any XML element that specifies

minOccurs="0" of type xsd:anyURI, xsd:string, or a type derived from one of those, an EPCIS implementation

SHALL treat an instance having the empty string as its value in exactly the same way as it would if the element were omitted altogether. The same is true

for any XML attribute of similar type that specifies

use="optional".

This schema also includes the XML binding of master data for the Core Event Types data definition module. The master data portions of the schema are

used to provide for an optional master data section of the EPCIS header which may be used in an EPCIS document or EPCIS query document.

The

EPCISDocument top-level element defined in the schema is used by the concrete bindings of the EPCIS Capture Interface specified in section 11. In

addition, trading partners may by mutual agreement use an EPCIS Document as a means to transport a collection of EPCIS events, optionally

accompanied by relevant master data, as a single electronic document.

An EPCIS document MAY include master data in its header. This is intended to allow the creator of an EPCIS document to include master data that the

recipient of the document might otherwise need to query using the EPCIS Query Interface. It is not required that an EPCIS document include master data

in the header, nor is it required that master data in the header include master data for every identifier used in the body of the EPCIS document, or that

master data in the header be limited to identifiers used in the body of the EPCIS document. If master data in the header does pertain to an identifier in

the body, however, it SHALL be current master data for that identifier at the time the EPCIS document is created. The receiver of an EPCIS document,

including an implementation of the EPCIS capture interface, may use or ignore such master data as it sees fit. Master data in the header of an EPCIS

document SHALL NOT specify attribute values that conflict with the ILMD section of any event contained within the EPCIS document body.

The XML Schema (XSD) for the Core Event Types data definition module is published at

https://ref.gs1.org/standards/epcis/2.0.0/epcglobal-epcis-

2_0.xsd.

EPCIS Standard

9.6 Core event types – examples (Non-Normative)

Note: Examples (in XML and JSON/JSON-LD format) are published at https://ref.gs1.org/docs/epcis/examples/.

EPCIS Standard

10 JSON/JSON-LD bindings for data definition

This chapter defines the JSON/JSON-LD data format for EPCIS 2.0. It contains a couple of introductory non-normative sections to provide background and

explanation, intended to be helpful for anyone already familiar with the XML data format for EPCIS that is defined in section 9

Section 10.1 provides a brief introduction to JSON and JSON-LD and why it is considered important that EPCIS 2.0 supports these data formats in addition

to XML.

Section 10.2 provides an explanation about how various EPCIS data structures are expressed in XML and JSON/JSON-LD and how these are validated in

XSD, JSON Schema and Shape Constraint Language (SHACL) respectively. This section provides a number of examples and is intended to help anyone

familiar with the XSD validation of EPCIS data to understand how equivalent validation rules are expressed in JSON Schema and SHACL.

Section 10.3 provides references to the normative validation schema, using JSON Schema to validate the JSON representation and Shape Constraint

Language (SHACL) to validate the JSON-LD representation.

Section 10.4 provides references to non-normative examples equivalent to the XML examples provided in section 9.

10.1 Brief introduction to JSON and JSON-LD in the context of EPCIS

EPCIS 2.0 is one of the first GS1 technical standards to support a data format in JSON and JSON-LD as an alternative to XML, which was the only data

format specified in EPCIS 1.2 and earlier. XML continues to be supported in Epcis 2.0.

The additional JSON/JSON-LD data format was motivated by two factors:

1. A desire to support a more lightweight data format that was more familiar to the current generation of software developers

2. A desire to support a Linked Data format for EPCIS data, to enable easier integration of EPCIS data with data from other systems, using Linked Data

formats / Resource Description Framework (RDF) as a common framework. (see info box below)

Through the use of scoped contexts within the JSON-LD context file (see section 10.1.3) it has been possible to make the JSON/JSON-LD format even

more developer friendly, supporting 'bare word' values for standard CBV code list values for populating bizStep, disposition or the type of a

bizTransaction, source, destination or the type (measurement type) within the value of sensorReport. This means that in JSON/JSON-LD,

event data can include key:value pairs such as

"bizStep":"shipping" or "disposition":"in_transit" while the JSON-LD context resource takes

care of expanding CBV standard 'bare word' code values such as

"shipping" or "in_transit" to the corresponding Web URIs for standard CBV code

values.

About Linked Data

Linked Data is structured data that can be interlinked with other structured data and uses semantic relationships to make factual assertions accessible in a

machine-interpretable way. Linked Data is a realization of the vision of the Semantic Web that has gained acceptance by industry.

In Linked Data, URIs (ideally Web URIs / IRIs) are used to give each thing a globally unambiguous identifier which can be used to retrieve machine-

interpretable facts and also used to express those facts.

EPCIS Standard

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has defined fundamental technical standards for Linked Data / Semantic Web technology, including Resource

Description Framework (RDF), RDF Schema (RDFS), Web Ontology Language (OWL), Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS) as well as

standardised Linked Data formats such as JSON for Linked Data (JSON-LD).

Linked Data can be used to represent facts in a directed data ‘graph’ or network consisting of nodes (representing things of interest or simple values such

as strings, dates or numbers) joined together by directed arcs that corresponds to predicates, properties or relationships.

At the most fundamental level, Linked Data uses the idea of an RDF Triple consisting of a Subject, Property and Value (also referred to as Subject,

Predicate and Object).

Linked Data triples provide a ‘lowest common denominator’ across various data formats, whether the source data is formatted as tables or spreadsheets or

comma-separated values or whether it is more hierarchical, such as XML.

Linked Data technology also includes query languages such as SPARQL that can be used to perform simple or complex semantic queries across multiple

distributed datasets as easily as if all the data were present in the same local database.

For this reason, there is some interest in having a Linked Data representation (e.g. JSON-LD format) for EPCIS data, to simplify data integration and

queries when EPCIS data is combined / compared with data from other systems.

10.1.1 JavaScript Object Notation (JSON)

JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) is defined in RFC 8259 [ https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc8259 ] and as ISO/IEC 21778:2017. JSON provides a lightweight

data interchange format that can be used across multiple programming or scripting languages for the exchange of structured data. Compared with XML,

JSON is simpler and usually also more compact and better supported in many modern programming languages without the need to include an additional

processing library.

JSON supports four simple data types:

■ String – a sequence of zero or more Unicode characters enclosed within double quotes

■ Number – supports positive or negative integers and floating-point numbers, optionally using exponential E notation, e.g. -1.2345E-6

■ Boolean – either true or false

■ null

Subject Value

Property

EPCIS Standard

JSON also supports two complex data types:

■ Arrays or Lists – a comma-separated sequence of zero or more elements enclosed within square brackets, e.g. [1,"xyz",true]

■ Objects or Associative Arrays or Dictionaries – a comma-separated sequence of zero or more key:value pairs enclosed within curly brackets, e.g.

{"key1":2,"key2":"abc"}

Due to its simplicity, JSON can simplify the expression of some data structures (especially arrays/lists) but it lacks some of the features present in XML:

■ XML uses named element tags to declare that everything between the opening and closing tags is of a specific data type (often user-defined).

Declarations within XML Schema Definition (XSD) link a named element to a defined data structure.

■ XML uses

hreflang to declare that a string value is provided in a specific human language.

■ XML Schema Definition language (XSD) can define that some specific string values should be cast to (interpreted as) other data types, such as specific

XSD data types for dates, date+time timestamps etc.

10.1.2 JSON for Linked Data (JSON-LD)

JSON for Linked Data [JSON-LD] is a W3C technical recommendation that defines an extended JSON format that addresses some of these shortcomings of

JSON, as well as positioning JSON-LD as another serialisation format for Linked Data (logical triples of data), within the Resource Description Framework

(RDF) alongside other Linked Data formats such as [RDFa], Terse Triple Notation [Turtle], [RDF/XML] etc.

Because EPCIS 1.2 already provides an XML data format that makes use of some of these features missing in JSON (explicit data type casting, support for

multiple namespaces) and because some use cases were seeking a Linked Data format for EPCIS data, EPCIS 2.0 provides a JSON/JSON-LD data format.

What is meant by JSON/JSON-LD is that as far as possible, most annotations that are specific to JSON-LD are hidden from the body of the data payload by

placing them within the JSON-LD context resource and through the use of aliases. This means that if the software consuming EPCIS 2.0 data only expects

to treat it as JSON data, it can simply ignore the JSON-LD context resource and use existing JSON processing functions for parsing the body of the data

payload. Software that specifically needs EPCIS 2.0 as a JSON-LD or Linked Data format makes use of the JSON-LD context resource (including retrieval of

any referenced online context files/resources) to obtain a full JSON-LD document / data structure, which can also be easily translated into other Linked

Data formats using available translation tools.

For the JSON-LD format, EPCIS 2.0 requires a minimum of JSON-LD v1.1 because it makes use of some features such as protected term definitions (using

"@protected") that were not defined in JSON-LD v1.0.

EPCIS Standard

EPCIS 2.0 makes use of the following special keywords of JSON-LD:

Special keyword Explanation

"@id"

"@id" is used to specify the Subject of Linked Data triples within data objects of associative arrays; for each key:value pair, the key is

interpreted as an RDF Property or Predicate of the Subject that was specified by the value of the special @id key, while the

corresponding value is interpreted as the corresponding RDF Object or Value for the same Subject – Predicate – Object triple or Subject

– Property – Value triple. For example, the EPCIS field "eventID" is declared as "@id" to indicate that its value (such as "ni:///sha-

256;c6407ffcac52ec159528f2b556ba4ac3844c5aa48485c1fd61643

e94f0a2d678?ver=CBV2.0" ) is an IRI/URI to be treated as the Subject of various RDF triples.

"@id" is also used to map a JSON key to an IRI/URI for the corresponding Linked Data property. For example, to enable a simpler JSON

syntax such as "bizStep": "shipping", "bizStep" is declared as "@id":"epcis:bizStep", which in turn expands to

@id

":"

https://ref.gs1.org/epcis/bizStep

"@type"

"@type" is used to specify that a string value should be cast to another data type, such as an xsd:dateTimeStamp.

"@context"

"@context" is used to specify the JSON-LD context resource, either declared explicitly inline or via URL reference. See section 10.1.3 for

further details. The JSON-LD context resources for EPCIS 2.0 and CBV 2.0 make use of scoped contexts (defined locally within an EPCIS

property or field) and protected term definitions, in order to support correct mapping of bare string values for property names and

standard CBV code values, to enable a much simpler JSON syntax such as "

bizStep

": "

shipping

" when standard CBV values are used.

"@protected"

"@protected": true is used to prevent the definition of a term being overridden by other JSON-LD contexts.

"@version"

"@version" is set to 1.1 to ensure that implementations of only JSON-LD v1.0 do not attempt to process the EPCIS 2.0 / CBV 2.0

context resources, which depend on features (such as

"@protected"

) that were introduced in JSON-LD v1.1.

"@type": "@id"

When a property is declared to be of "@type": "@id", its value is interpreted (cast) as an IRI/URI rather than a string. EPCIS properties

such as

readPoint

bizLocation

epcList, parentID

deviceID

microorganism

etc. make use of this.

"@type": "@vocab"

When a property is declared to be of "@type": "@vocab", the context resource can define a set of standard bare-word strings that can

expand to IRIs / URIs for enumerations of standard values, such as CBV standard code lists for populating EPCIS properties such as

bizStep, disposition, set or unset within persistentDisposition, type within bizTransactionList or type within

sensorReport.

This enables a much simpler JSON syntax such as "

bizStep

": "

shipping

" when standard CBV values are used.

"@container": "@set"

When a property is declared with "@container": "@set", its values are treated as an unordered set, rather than an ordered list. EPCIS

properties such as epcList, childEPCs, inputEPCList etc. make use of this feature, whereas some other properties such as

parentID

do not declare this because they expect a single value rather than an unordered set of zero or more values.

Many users of EPCIS 2.0 will initially focus on the JSON representation and may disregard the context resource. However, retrieval and usage of the

context resource enables the full Linked Data potential of the JSON-LD representation to be reached.

In order to hide such special JSON-LD keywords from the JSON body of the data, EPCIS 2.0 makes use of a JSON-LD context resource to express

namespace mappings, aliases and to cast values of particular data fields to specific data types. Features of the JSON-LD context resource that are relevant

for EPCIS 2.0 are explained in section 10.1.3

EPCIS Standard

It should be noted that a JSON-LD dataset may reference or include more than one context resource. Typically, it may reference the standard JSON-LD

context resource for EPCIS 2.0, which is published at https://ref.gs1.org/standards/epcis/2.0.0/epcis-context.jsonld. It may also reference

one or more additional JSON-LD context resources that provide additional namespace mappings and aliases for terms from other namespaces such as

those defined by users, industry groups or solution providers.

10.1.3 Features of the JSON-LD context resource

The context resource is a data object container in which the following may be specified:

■ Expansions for Compact URI Expression (CURIE) prefixes,

e.g.

"xsd": "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#"

In this sense, the context resource is used in a similar way to the way QName namespace declarations are expressed within an XML header.

□ Custom namespace expansions can also be declared within a context resource, e.g.

"example": "http://ns.example.com/epcis/"

■ Mappings of fields to IRIs/URIs of Linked Data properties and their values to data types other than string (type casting), e.g.:

□ "eventTime": {"@id":"epcis:eventTime", "@type":"xsd:dateTimeStamp"}

The JSON key "eventTime" should be mapped to Linked Data property https://ref.gs1.org/epcis/eventTime

Every value for eventTime (and also recordTime and declarationTime) should be treated as an xsd:dateTimeStamp value

□ "quantity": {"@id":"epcis:quantity", "@type":"xsd:double"}

The JSON key "quantity" should be mapped to Linked Data property https://ref.gs1.org/epcis/quantity

Every value of quantity should be treated as an xsd:double value

□ "epcList": {"@id":"epcis:epcList", "@type":"@id", "@container": "@set"}

The JSON key "epcList" should be mapped to Linked Data property https://ref.gs1.org/epcis/epcList

Every value within epcList (and also epcClass, parentID, childEPCs, inputEPCList, outputEPCList, bizStep, disposition, readPoint, bizLocation,

bizTransaction, source, destination, type) should be treated as IRIs –JSON-LD uses the special notation "@id" for this purpose.

The values are to be treated as an unordered set, rather than an ordered list.

■ Aliases for JSON-LD keywords, e.g.:

□ "type": "@type"

□ "id":"@id"

□ Mappings of EPCIS fields to semantic URIs defined elsewhere, e.g.:

□ "creationDate": {"@id":"dcterms:created", "@type":"xsd:dateTime"}

□ "schemaVersion": {"@id":"owl:versionInfo"}

The values are data objects in which the value for the "@id" key is the semantic URI or CURIE to which the EPCIS fieldname corresponds, while the

value for the

"@type" key is the corresponding data type.

EPCIS Standard

■ Mappings of sets of 'bare word' values to corresponding Web URIs for standard CBV code list values with properties such as bizStep, disposition

etc. that can be populated with standard CBV code list values. The standard JSON Schema for EPCIS includes the same sets of 'bare word' values as

an enumeration and requires that the value of such properties is either a string from such a defined enumeration or 'bare word' values or a URI if it is

a custom value from another namespace (e.g. defined by a user, sector, region or solution provider). For example, in the JSON/JSON-LD format for

EPCIS,

bizStep is expected to be either a string from an enumerated list that includes CBV code values for populating bizStep (such as

"shipping", "receiving", "commissioning" etc.) or otherwise it must be a URI if it is not using one of those standard CBV code values.

Even though each individual member object in a JSON-LD document MAY declare its local @context, EPCIS 2.0 capturing applications that use the JSON-

LD context resource SHOULD specify a consolidated

@context for all default and user-defined namespaces at the root level of the EPCISDocument (refers

to the payload of POST /capture endpoint) as well as at the root level of the EPCISEvent (refers to POST /event endpoint). This is strongly recommended,

in order to simplify document parsing and validation.

10.1.4 Compact URI Expressions (CURIEs)

JSON-LD also recognises the use of Compact URI Expressions (CURIEs) [ https://www.w3.org/TR/curie/ ] as a more compact way of expressing Uniform

Resource Identifiers (URIs) especially when a document or data structure includes several URI values that share a common stem and structure, only

differing in the value of the final URI component.

A CURIE is written as two components joined by a colon in the format prefix:finalpart

The prefix (the part before the colon) is a string whose CURIE expansion should be defined in the context resource. To expand the CURIE to the

corresponding full URI, the final part is simply appended to the CURIE expansion of the prefix.

For example, the context resource defines a CURIE expansion for "xsd" (XML Schema Datatypes) as follows:

"xsd" : "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#"

This means that a CURIE such as

xsd:dateTimeStamp should be expanded to http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTimeStamp

CURIEs are syntactically similar to QNames in XML but whereas a QName provides globally unambiguous namespace qualification for element names and

attribute names, CURIEs are designed to always expand to a full URI or Internationalised Resource Identifier (IRI). In a CURIE, the local part following the

colon is not required to be a valid XML element name, so for example, an all-numeric local part following the colon is valid in a CURIE even though it

would not be valid in a QName. QNames can therefore be considered as a subset of CURIEs.

10.2 Expression and validation of EPCIS data structures in JSON and JSON-LD

EPCIS v1.2 defines an XML data format which is validated using XML Schema Definition language (XSD). In addition to the XML data format (which is

updated in Epcis 2.0 to support the new

AssociationEvent and SensorElement and persistentDisposition), Epcis 2.0 defines a JSON/JSON-LD

data format.

JSON data can be validated using JSON Schema [ https://json-schema.org/specification.html

]. EPCIS/CBV 2.0 is compatible with version 7 of JSON

Schema and with any future version of JSON Schema that maintains full backward compatibility with JSON Schema version 7, since it makes use of the

EPCIS Standard

if/then feature introduced in JSON Schema v7 and is used to avoid spurious validation results by ensuring that validation rules can be specific to each

event type.

JSON-LD data can be validated using Shape Constraint Language (SHACL), a W3C technical recommendation [ https://www.w3.org/TR/shacl/

]

JSON Schema and SHACL play an analogous role to XML Schema Definition language (XSD) for the validation of XML data. EPCIS 2.0 defines JSON

Schema and SHACL files for validation purposes. Some software toolkits may also make use of these for the generation of stub code to reduce

development effort and ensure consistency with the schema.

Figure 10-1 Supporting multiple formats for EPCIS / CBV 2.0

The following sections explain how the EPCIS data structures are expressed in XML and JSON/JSON-LD as well as how validation rules are expressed for

simple literal values, enumerations, lists/arrays and more complex data structures, providing a side-by-side comparison of the syntax expressed in XSD,

JSON Schema and SHACL to help readers of this standard understand how each validation rule is supported in these three validation languages. The

EPCIS Standard

following subsections are intended as a non-normative introduction. The normative validation rules are expressed in the XSD, JSON Schema and SHACL

files published for EPCIS 2.0.

10.2.1 Expressing data fields expecting simple values

Some EPCIS event fields (such as action, bizStep, disposition, eventTime, recordTime) each expect a single data value, not a list. In XML, the value

appears between the opening and closing tags of an XML element named after the corresponding field.

In JSON/JSON-LD, there are no closing tags and no named elements. Instead, event fields expecting simple values are represented as key:value pairs

within a data object that is enclosed within curly brackets.

The tables below show equivalent examples for how such data might be expressed.

Format EPCIS 2.0 example for action

XML

<action>OBSERVE</action>

JSON

"action": "OBSERVE"

JSON-LD Within the standard JSON-LD context resource,

"action": "epcis:action"

(maps to

https://ref.gs1.org/epcis/action

)

Format EPCIS 2.0 example for eventTime (same pattern for recordTime)

XML

JSON

"eventTime": "2005-04-03T20:33:31.116000-06:00"

JSON-LD Within the standard JSON-LD context resource,

"eventTime": {"@id":"epcis:eventTime", "@type":"xsd:dateTimeStamp"}

EPCIS Standard

Format EPCIS 2.0 example for bizStep (same pattern for disposition)

XML

<bizStep>urn:epcglobal:cbv:bizstep:shipping</bizStep>

JSON

"bizStep": "shipping"

JSON-LD Within the standard JSON-LD context resource, such fields define a protected scoped context that defines expansion of the corresponding standard

CBV values. A snippet is shown below, with the ellipsis indicating numerous standard CBV values for populating bizStep that are not shown in this

snippet.

"bizStep": {

"@context": {

"@protected": true,

"@version": 1.1,

"cbv": "https://ref.gs1.org/cbv/",

"accepting": "cbv:BizStep-accepting",

...

"shipping": "cbv:BizStep-shipping",

...

"void_shipping": "cbv:BizStep-void_shipping"

"@id": "epcis:bizStep",

"@type": "@vocab"

Note that in each of these examples, the JSON data consists of a simple key:value pair within a data object, while the mapping to specific data types is

expressed within the JSON-LD context resource. Note also that for

bizStep, disposition and other fields that expect a URI value, the context resource

indicates

"@type":"@vocab" and defines a protected scoped context that defines the mappings from simple string values such as "shipping" to the

corresponding Web URIs such as

<https://ref.gs1.org/cbv/BizStep-shipping>.

10.2.2 Validating data fields expecting simple values

For simple values that are not an xsd:string, the JSON-LD context resource specifies the @type for each field within an EPCIS event. Note that where the

simple value is a URI, JSON-LD indicates this via the special key:value pair

"@type":"@id" or "@type":"@vocab" within the JSON-LD context resource, "@id"

indicating that the value should be considered as an IRI or URI that is a potential Linked Data resource with additional properties of its own, rather than a

literal URI; for this reason, EPCIS fields that expect a URI are never mapped using

"@type":"xsd:anyURI". The special key:value pair "@type":"@vocab"

indicates that the value is an IRI/URI from a defined vocabulary and the standard JSON-LD context resource for EPCIS/CBV 2.0 provides mappings from

bare strings such as

"shipping" to standard CBV values (such as <https://ref.gs1.org/cbv/BizStep-shipping>) that are appropriate for the respective

property or data field in which each scoped context is defined.

EPCIS Standard

The following tables show how the validation rules for two of the above examples are expressed using XSD, JSON Schema and SHACL. Colour coding is

used to indicate equivalent ways of expressing constraints. For example, the name of the property is highlighted in red. The expected data type is shown

in blue. The purple highlighting shows how each validation format expresses that the property is mandatory. The validation rules for the

action field are

discussed in section 10.2.3

Format EPCIS 2.0 validation example for eventTime (similar pattern for recordTime)

XSD

<xsd:element name="eventTime" type="xsd:dateTimeStamp"

minOccurs="1" maxOccurs="1" />

JSON Schema

"definitions": {

"time": {"type": "string","format": "date-time" }

…

}

"properties" : [

"eventTime": {"$ref": "#/definitions/time"},

…

]

"required" : ["eventTime"]

SHACL

epcis:EventTimeShape

a sh:PropertyShape ;

sh:path epcis:eventTime ;

sh:name "eventTime" ;

sh:datatype xsd:dateTimeStamp ;

sh:minCount 1 ;

sh:maxCount 1 ;

sh:message "In all EPCIS events, eventTime is mandatory, single valued and an xsd:dateTimeStamp" ;

Because eventTime is a mandatory field in all EPCIS events, it must occur exactly once.

For XSD, the default values of both attributes minOccurs and maxOccurs is 1, so they are typically omitted from XSD validation rules unless they specify

other values such as minOccurs="0" for an optional field or maxOccurs="unbounded" if there is no upper limit on the number of permitted values.

In JSON Schema, a mandatory field is listed within the list of

"required" fields.

In SHACL, a mandatory field is indicated via a constraint of sh:minCount 1.

In XSD, the

type attribute expresses the data type, e.g. type="xsd:dateTimeStamp".

In JSON Schema, the property for eventTime references a definition for a datatype called time, in which the "type" is required to be "string" and

the

"format" is required to be "date-time".

In SHACL, the constraint

sh:datatype specifies that an xsd:dateTimeStamp value is expected.

EPCIS Standard

In the next example, bizStep is an optional field in EPCIS events and a URI value is expected. The corresponding validation rules are shown in the table

below.

Format EPCIS 2.0 validation example for bizStep (similar pattern for disposition)

XSD

<xsd:element name="bizStep" type="epcis:BusinessStepIDType"

minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1" />

<xsd:simpleType name="BusinessStepIDType">

<xsd:restriction base="xsd:anyURI"/>

</xsd:simpleType>

JSON Schema

"definitions": {

"vocab-uri": {"type": "string","format": "uri" }

…

}

"properties" : [

"bizStep": {

"anyOf": [

{ "$ref": "#/definitions/vocab-uri" },

{

"type": "string",

"enum": [

"accepting",

"arriving",

…

"unpacking",

"void_shipping"

]

}

]

}

...

]

SHACL

epcis:BizStepShape

a sh:PropertyShape ;

sh:path epcis:bizStep ;

sh:name "bizStep" ;

sh:nodeKind sh:IRI ;

sh:pattern "^(.+?):(.+)$" ;

sh:maxCount 1;

sh:message "bizStep must be single-valued and an IRI/URI" ;

EPCIS Standard

In XSD, minOccurs="0" because the bizStep field is not mandatory. The type attribute specifies that the value is a type

epcis:BusinessStepIDType which is effectively an xsd:anyURI according to its definition.

In JSON Schema, the equivalent to specifying

minOccurs="0" is to declare the field within the list of "properties" but to omit it from the list of

"required" fields. bizStep then supports two alternative formats, indicated by "anyOf". The first alternative references a definition named vocab-uri, in

which the "type" attribute specifies "string" and the "format" attribute specifies "uri"; this is to support values from custom vocabularies outside of the

standard CBV values defined for

bizStep. The second alternative uses "enum" to enumerate a set of bare string values (such as "arriving") corresponding

to the standard CBV values defined for bizStep; the standard JSON-LD context for EPCIS/CBV 2.0 then expands these bare string values to the

corresponding URIs such as

<https://ref.gs1.org/cbv/BizStep-arriving>.

In SHACL, the equivalent to specifying minOccurs="0" is to declare a constraint sh:minCount of 0, although this is the default value for sh:minCount, so

it is acceptable to omit sh:minCount for optional fields, since the default value (0) is assumed. For mandatory fields, it is necessary to assert sh:minCount

1 whereas in XSD, minOccurs="1" is the default and assumed if the minOccurs attribute is not specified. Note that for fields that expect a URI value,

instead of using sh:datatype, the validation rule uses sh:nodeKind sh:IRI.

10.2.3 Validation of fields (e.g. 'action') that expect a string value from an enumerated list

The action field is present within ObjectEvent, AggregationEvent, TransactionEvent and AssociationEvent but absent from TransformationEvent. Its value is

a string from an enumerated list consisting of three options,

"ADD", "OBSERVE", "DELETE".

The table below shows how to specify validation rules for the permitted enumerated values of the action field in XSD, JSON Schema and SHACL.

Format EPCIS 2.0 validation example for action

XSD

<xsd:element name="action" type="epcis:ActionType"/>

<xsd:simpleType name="ActionType">

<xsd:restriction base="xsd:string">

<xsd:enumeration value="ADD"/>

<xsd:enumeration value="OBSERVE"/>

<xsd:enumeration value="DELETE"/>

</xsd:restriction>

JSON Schema

"action": {

"type": "string",

"enum": ["ADD","OBSERVE","DELETE"]

EPCIS Standard

Format EPCIS 2.0 validation example for action

SHACL

epcis:ActionShape

a sh:PropertyShape ;

sh:path epcis:action ;

sh:name "action" ;

sh:datatype xsd:string ;

sh:in ("ADD" "OBSERVE" "DELETE") ;

sh:minCount 1 ;

sh:maxCount 1 ;

sh:message "Within ObjectEvent, AggregationEvent, TransactionEvent, AssociationEvent, action is mandatory, and must be a

string value, one of either 'ADD', 'OBSERVE' or 'DELETE'" ;

In XSD, enumerated strings are expressed via xsd:enumeration elements within xsd:simpleType with an xsd:restriction base attribute value of

xsd:string.

In JSON Schema, the same enumerated strings are the list values of the

"enum" property.

In SHACL, the same enumerated strings are within the list values of the "sh:in" property.

10.2.4 Expressing simple lists of values

Some EPCIS event fields (such as epcList, childEPCs ) expect a list of zero or more values. In XML, each element of the list is enclosed within an

<epc> or <id> element (or the <set> and <unset> elements within <persistentDisposition>), which appear nested within the XML element that

expects a list of values, as shown in the table below.

In the JSON/JSON-LD data format, a list is natively supported using the square bracket notation to indicate a list of comma-separated values, so in

JSON/JSON-LD, there is usually no need for anything equivalent to the wrapper element for each element of the list. The exception to this is for child

elements in a list in which an inline attribute is permitted in XML. This is discussed in section 10.2.6

Format EPCIS 2.0 example for epcList

XML

<epc>urn:epc:id:sgtin:9521321.007346.2017</epc>

<epc>urn:epc:id:sgtin:9521321.007346.2018</epc>

</epcList>

JSON

{"epcList": ["urn:epc:id:sgtin:9521321.007346.2017","urn:epc:id:sgtin:9521321.007346.2018"]}

EPCIS Standard

Format EPCIS 2.0 example for epcList

JSON-LD Within JSON-LD context resource, "epcList": {"@id":"epcis:epcList", "@type":"@id", "@container":"@set"}

because the EPC values are URIs (indicated by

"@type":"@id"

) within an unorderd list (set) (indicated by

"@container":"@set"

10.2.5 Validating lists of values

Format EPCIS 2.0 validation example for epcList

XSD

<xsd:element name="epcList" type="epcis:EPCListType"/>

<xsd:complexType name="EPCListType">

<xsd:sequence>

<xsd:element name="epc" type="epcglobal:EPC" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded"/>

</xsd:sequence>

</xsd:complexType>

JSON Schema

"definitions": {

"uri": {"type": "string","format": "uri" }

…

}

"properties" : [

"epcList": {"type": "array", "items": { "$ref": "#/definitions/uri" },

…

]

SHACL

epcis:EPCListShape

a sh:PropertyShape ;

sh:path epcis:epcList ;

sh:name "epcList" ;

sh:nodeKind sh:IRI ;

sh:pattern "^(.+?):(.+)$" ;

sh:message "Any values within epcList must be IRIs/URIs" ;

In JSON Schema, the field is declared to be of "type":"array", while the structure of the elements of the array is specified via the "items" keyword,

which in this case uses

"$ref" to reference a definition for a reference named "uri" that specifies a value of "type": "string" and "format":

"uri"

In SHACL, there is no need to declare that a list of values is expected.

sh:nodeKind sh:IRI indicates that the values are expected to be IRIs or URIs.

EPCIS Standard

10.2.6 Expressing lists of elements with inline attributes expressing type

In XML, <bizTransactionList> contains repeated child elements named <bizTransaction>, each having an inline type attribute. <sourceList>

and

<destinationList> share a similar structure, in which there may be repeated child elements named <source> or <destination>, each having

an optional inline

type attribute.

In JSON/JSON-LD, bizTransactionList expects a list of objects, each having a bizTransaction field and a type field. There is no concept of an

inline attribute within JSON/JSON-LD, so what appear in XML as elements containing bare child string values and inline attributes are treated equally. In

JSON/JSON-LD, this results in a JSON data object with two or more key:value pairs. As shown in the example below, one pair (such as "type" : "po")

is formed from each XML inline attribute, while the final pair (e.g.

"bizTransaction": "http://transaction.acme.com/po/12345678") is

formed by setting the key to the name of the XML element that contains a bare child string value (e.g. setting a JSON key of

"bizTransaction" from

the XML element

<bizTransaction>) and setting its value to the bare child string value that was enclosed within the XML element. Note that for

standard CBV code list values, the JSON/JSON-LD format for EPCIS/CBV 2.0 uses bare words such as

"po", "shipping" etc. and relies upon mappings

defined within protected scoped contexts that are appropriate for the corresponding property/field, as explained in section 10.2.1

Format EPCIS 2.0 example for bizTransactionList

XML

http://transaction.acme.com/po/12345678

</bizTransaction>

urn:epcglobal:cbv:bt:9521321073467:1152

</bizTransaction>

</bizTransactionList>

JSON

{"bizTransactionList": [

{"type": "po",

"bizTransaction": "http://transaction.acme.com/po/12345678" },

{"type": "desadv",

"bizTransaction": "urn:epcglobal:cbv:bt:9521321073467:1152" }

]}

JSON-LD

EPCIS Standard

Within the standard JSON-LD context resource for EPCIS/CBV 2.0, the following entry appears for "bizTransactionList":

"bizTransactionList": {

"@id": "epcis:bizTransactionList",

"@container": "@set",

"@context": [

{

"@protected": true,

"@version": 1.1,

"cbv": "https://ref.gs1.org/cbv/",

"bol": "cbv:BTT-bol",

…

"desadv": "cbv:BTT-desadv",

…

"po": "cbv:BTT-po",

…

"upevt": "cbv:BTT-upevt"

{

"@protected": true,

"epcis": "https://ref.gs1.org/epcis/",

"bizTransaction": {

"@id": "@id",

"@type": "@id"

"type": {

"@id": "epcis:bizTransactionType",

"@type": "@vocab"

}

]

}

"@container": "@set" indicates that the value of bizTransactionList is an unordered set of items. A protected "@context" within the scope of

bizTransactionList defines that the bizTransaction field is an IRI/URI ("@type": "@id" ) and that it represents the Subject of an RDF triple

("@id": "@id" ), while within the local context of bizTransactionList the type field is mapped to the property epcis:bizTransactionType

("@id": "epcis:bizTransactionType" ) and its value is a URI from a controlled vocabulary ("@type": "@vocab" ) that is enumerated within the

EPCIS Standard

Format EPCIS 2.0 example for bizTransactionList

same protected scoped context that expresses mappings such as "desadv": "cbv:BTT-desadv" ( = https://ref.gs1.org/cbv/BTT-desadv )

and

"po": "cbv:BTT-po" ( = https://ref.gs1.org/cbv/BTT-po ).

Within the ontology file for EPCIS, the Linked Data property epcis:bizTransactionType corresponds to type within bizTransactionList.

Similarly, the Linked Data property epcis:sourceOrDestinationType corresponds to source within sourceList and to destination within

destinationList. Likewise, the Linked Data property epcis:measurementType corresponds to type within sensorReport. These JSON labels

('type','source','destination') are noted within the EPCIS ontology via the annotation property epcis:jsonldLabel from the properties that

use them.

bizTransaction, source and destination are not defined as properties within the EPCIS ontology. Instead, they are considered as JSON aliases

of the special "@id" keyword in JSON-LD because their value is a URI that is the RDF Subject of a triple that expresses the type, which is mapped

via the standard JSON-LD context file for EPCIS to the properties epcis:bizTransactionType or epcis:sourceOrDestinationType depending

on the scope in which they are used. That is why the standard JSON-LD context resource for EPCIS/CBV 2.0 includes within scoped contexts

mappings such as:

"bizTransaction": { "@id": "@id", "@type": "@id"}

10.2.7 Modelling and validating subclasses of EPCIS event

The UML class diagram for EPCIS shows an abstract class EPCISEvent and four subclasses (event types) already defined in v1.2, namely ObjectEvent,

AggregationEvent, TransactionEvent and TransformationEvent. Version 2.0 of EPCIS introduces a fifth subclass or event type,

AssociationEvent, which is structurally similar to an AggregationEvent but has different semantics; associations are not disassociated when a

disaggregation occurs.

In XML, each of these event types or subclasses of

EPCISEvent has its own designated element, <ObjectEvent>, <AggregationEvent>,

<TransactionEvent>, <TransformationEvent> and now also <AssociationEvent>.

XSD schema bind each of these named elements to a defined type (a reference to a defined structure) through declarations such as:

<xsd:element name="ObjectEvent" type="epcis:ObjectEventType" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded"/>

XSD also support class inheritance via xsd:extension that specifies the base (superclass or abstract event type), e.g.

<xsd:complexType name="AggregationEventType">

<xsd:complexContent>

<xsd:extension base="epcis:EPCISEventType">

<xsd:sequence>

<xsd:element name="parentID" type="epcis:ParentIDType" minOccurs="0"/>

<xsd:element name="childEPCs" type="epcis:EPCListType"/>

EPCIS Standard

…

</xsd:sequence>

…

</xsd:complexContent>

</xsd:complexType>

JSON has no named elements nor any special syntax to declare that a class or data object is of a specific type.

JSON-LD uses a special keyword,

"@type" to declare that a class or data object is of a specific type. In JSON-LD, "@type" corresponds to the Linked

Data predicate

rdf:type.

The standard context resource for EPCIS/CBV 2.0 defines an alias of the special JSON-LD keyword "@type" named "type" as part of the effort to hide

the JSON-LD special keywords from those users and applications who are primarily interested in processing EPCIS event data as JSON. However, within

bizTransactionList, sourceList, destinationList and sensorReport, "type" SHOULD NOT be mapped to the special JSON-LD keyword

"@type" that corresponds to the Linked Data predicate rdf:type; instead, the standard context resource for EPCIS/CBV 2.0 defines protected scoped

contexts for

bizTransactionList, sourceList, destinationList and sensorReport in which "type" is instead mapped via "@id" to properties

defined within the EPCIS 2.0 ontology, namely

epcis:bizTransactionType , epcis:sourceOrDestinationType (within sourceList or

destinationList) or epcis:measurementType (within sensorReport).

JSON Schema structures have been defined for the superclass EPCISEvent and for each of the subclasses (event types such as ObjectEvent,

AggregationEvent), which reference the validation rules for the superclass EPCISEvent and add their own specific validation rules.

Because JSON has no special way of declaring that a data object is of a specific type, extra care is needed when writing validation rules in JSON Schema

to ensure that each set of validating rules will only be tested against the corresponding event type and to indicate that the "type" (rdf:type /

@type)

field is more important than other fields for validation purposes, in order to select the appropriate validation rules for each EPCIS event type.

By using the if/then/else feature introduced in v7 of JSON Schema, it is possible to use the "if" clause to require a match on the value of "type"

and use the

"then" clause to reference the validation rule structure defined for that event type.

This approach ensures that each event type is correctly validated without resulting in spurious validation errors for all other EPCIS event types.

Shape Constraint Language (SHACL) is used to validate the JSON-LD representation. SHACL does support inheritance if the data being validated expresses

rdfs:subClassOf relationships explicitly. However, in EPCIS 2.0 event data, there are no such declarations within the EPCIS data that an epcis:ObjectEvent

is a rdfs:subClassOf epcis:Event , nor can this subclass relationship be defined within the JSON-LD context resource.

Instead, the SHACL validation file for EPCIS 2.0 uses sh:targetClass to specify the class to which the validation rules apply, e.g.

epcis:AggregationEventShape

a sh:NodeShape ;

sh:targetClass epcis:AggregationEvent ;

EPCIS Standard

The validation rules from the base class EPCISEvent that are inherited by each subclass event type are simply referenced from within the SHACL shape

that is defined for each event type / subclass and such validation rules on core fields of

EPCISEvent are simply replicated for each EPCIS event type /

subclass.

In SHACL, a node shape (sh:NodeShape) constrains the structure of a class or data object. The SHACL validation file for EPCIS 2.0 contains some node

shapes that reference other node shapes. For example, the node shape

epcis:SensorElementShape references node shapes

epcis:SensorMetadataShape and epcis:SensorReportShape. It does so by using sh:property to reference these two node shapes. Within each

referenced node shape (e.g.

epcis:SensorMetadataShape and epcis:SensorReportShape), sh:path is used to match the property (e.g.

epcis:sensorMetadata or epcis:sensorReport) whose value is constrained by that node shape.

10.2.8 Comparison of how validation rules are expressed in XSD, JSON Schema and SHACL

Validation Rule XSD JSON Schema SHACL

Applies to named

field

name="fieldname" type="defined_type" Fieldname appears within list of

properties

sh:path fieldname

Mandatory Field

minOccurs="1"

(may be omitted since default values of

minOccurs="1"

)

Include fieldname within the

list of "required" properties

sh:minCount 1

(must be asserted since default value of sh:minCount=0)

Note on default

values for

minOccurs,

maxOccurs and

sh:minCount,

sh:maxCount

default of XSD minOccurs = 1, maxOccurs

= 1)

Only properties specified within

"required" are considered

mandatory

default of sh:minCount = 0, default of sh:maxCount = unbounded

Optional Field

minOccurs="0"

(must be asserted since default value of

minOccurs="1")

Include fieldname within the

list of "properties" but omit

from list of "required"

properties

sh:minCount 0

(may be omitted since default value of sh:minCount=0)

Field expects a

string

type="xsd:string"

"type":"string" sh:datatype xsd:string

Field expects a

dateTimeStamp

type="xsd:dateTimeStamp"

"type":"string",

"format":"date-time"

sh:datatype xsd:dateTimeStamp

Field expects an

integer

type="xsd:int"

"type":"integer" sh:datatype xsd:int

Field expects a

decimal value

type="xsd:decimal"

"type":"number" sh:datatype xsd:decimal

EPCIS Standard

Validation Rule XSD JSON Schema SHACL

Field expects a

double-precision

floating-point

value

type="xsd:double"

"type":"number" sh:datatype xsd:double

Field expects a

string from a

restricted list of

enumerated

values

references an xsd:simpleType with an

xsd:restriction

base="xsd:string" containing

xsd:enumeration child elements that

express the permitted values

e.g.

<xsd:simpleType name="ActionType">

<xsd:restriction base="xsd:string">

<xsd:enumeration value="ADD"/>

<xsd:enumeration

value="OBSERVE"/>

<xsd:enumeration value="DELETE"/>

</xsd:restriction>

</xsd:simpleType>

"type":"string",

"enum":[ … ]

e.g.

"type":"string",

"enum":[

"ADD",

"OBSERVE",

"DELETE"

]

sh:datatype xsd:string

sh:in ("ADD" "OBSERVE" "DELETE")

e.g.

epcis:ActionShape

a sh:PropertyShape ;

sh:path epcis:action ;

sh:name "action" ;

sh:datatype xsd:string ;

sh:in ("ADD" "OBSERVE" "DELETE") ;

sh:minCount 1 ;

sh:maxCount 1 ;

sh:message "Within ObjectEvent, AggregationEvent,

TransactionEvent, AssociationEvent, action is mandatory,

and must be a string value, one of either 'ADD', 'OBSERVE'

or 'DELETE'" ;

Field expects a

URI

(in situations

where CBV 2.0

does not define a

code list)

type="xsd:anyURI"

or references an xsd:simpleType with an

xsd:restriction

base="xsd:anyURI"

"type":"string",

"format":"uri"

sh:nodeKind sh:IRI

sh:pattern "^(.+?):(.+)$"

EPCIS Standard

Validation Rule XSD JSON Schema SHACL

Field expects a

URI

(in situations

where CBV 2.0

defines a code

list for standard

values but

custom URI

values are also

permitted)

type="xsd:anyURI"

or references an xsd:simpleType with an

xsd:restriction

base="xsd:anyURI"

"anyOf": [

{

"type":"string",

"format":"uri"

{

"enum": [

"accepting",

"arriving",

…

"void_shipping"

]

}

]

sh:nodeKind sh:IRI

sh:pattern "^(.+?):(.+)$"

10.2.9 Mapping core SBDH fields to the JSON/JSON-LD data format for EPCIS

Section 9.2 explains the optional use of the Standard Business Document Header [SBDH] within the XML representation of an EPCISDocument. A

JSON/JSON-LD format of SBDH has not been defined by UN CEFACT or by any other standards organisation. In order to support existing XML users of

SBDH within EPCISDocument, three optional properties have been defined for use within the root level of an EPCISDocument in JSON/JSON-LD format.

These are shown in the table below.

Optional property within JSON/JSON-LD format at root level

within an EPCISDocument

Expected data type Corresponding XML element in SBDH

epcis:sender xsd:string sbdh:Sender

epcis:receiver xsd:string sbdh:Receiver

epcis:instanceIdentifier xsd:string sbdh:InstanceIdentifier

The mandatory property within EPCISDocument 'creationDate' expresses the date and time of creation of the EPCISDocument as an

xsd:dateTimeStamp value, equivalent to the SBDH element sbdh:CreationDateAndTime.

EPCIS Standard

10.2.10 Online validation tools for JSON Schema and SHACL

Online tools currently available for validation using JSON Schema include:

■ https://www.jsonschemavalidator.net/

■ https://json-schema-validator.herokuapp.com/

■ https://www.liquid-technologies.com/online-json-schema-validator

■ https://jsonschemalint.com/

Online tools currently available for validation using SHACL include:

■ https://shacl-playground.zazuko.com/

■ http://rdfshape.herokuapp.com/

10.2.11 Libraries and toolkits providing JSON-LD support

A number of libraries and toolkits are now available to support JSON-LD in various programming and scripting languages. A list of these is currently

provided at https://json-ld.org/#developers

10.3 Validation schema (references to normative content)

The JSON representation of EPCIS 2.0 data SHALL validate against the JSON Schema, published at https://ref.gs1.org/standards/epcis/2.0.0/epcis-json-

schema.json.

The JSON-LD representation of EPCIS 2.0 data SHALL validate against the SHACL file, published at https://ref.gs1.org/standards/epcis/2.0.0/epcis-

shacl.ttl.

Section 10.2 provides detailed explanation of the structure of these validation files and how validation rules expressed only previously in XSD are now also

expressed within JSON Schema and SHACL.

Note that both the JSON Schema and SHACL validation files take an open shape approach to validation, unlike the closed shape approach taken in XSD

validation of the XML data format. This means that additional terms from other namespaces may be used within the JSON/JSON-LD representation of

EPCIS 2.0 data and will simply be ignored by the validation files. While XML, JSON and JSON-LD all support the serialisation or expression of hierarchical

data structures, XML takes a document-centric approach placing great emphasis on the sequence in which elements appear. JSON and JSON-LD express

graph data structures in which the sequence of appearance is insignificant for any two fields / keys at the same level of hierarchy within a JSON object /

dictionary.

The EPCIS 2.0 JSON-LD context file is published at https://ref.gs1.org/standards/epcis/2.0.0/epcis-context.jsonld

EPCIS Standard

10.4 Non-normative examples in JSON and JSON-LD

JSON and JSON-LD examples are published at https://ref.gs1.org/docs/epcis/examples/.

11 Bindings for core capture operations module

This section defines bindings for the Core Capture Operations Module. All bindings specified here are based on the XML representation of events defined in

section 9.5

. An implementation of EPCIS MAY provide support for one or more Core Capture Operations Module bindings as specified below.

11.1 Message queue binding

This section defines a binding of the Core Capture Operations Module to a message queue system, as commonly deployed within large enterprises. A

message queue system is defined for the purpose of this section as any system which allows one application to send a message to another application.

Message queue systems commonly support both point-to-point message delivery and publish/subscribe message delivery. Message queue systems often

include features for guaranteed reliable delivery and other quality-of-service (QoS) guarantees.

Because there is no universally accepted industry standard message queue system, this specification is designed to apply to any such system. Many

implementation details, therefore, necessarily fall outside the scope of this specification. Such details include message queue system to use, addressing,

protocols, use of QoS or other system-specific parameters, and so on.

An EPCIS implementation MAY provide a message queue binding of the Core Capture Operations Module in the following manner. For the purposes of this

binding, a “capture client” is an EPCIS Capture Application that wishes to deliver an EPCIS event through the EPCIS Capture Interface, and a “capture

server” is an EPCIS Repository or EPCIS Accessing Application that receives an event from a capture client.

A capture server SHALL provide one or more message queue endpoints through which a capture client may deliver one or more EPCIS events. Each

message queue endpoint MAY be a point-to-point queue, a publish/subscribe topic, or some other appropriate addressable channel provided by the

message queue system; the specifics are outside the scope of this specification.

A capture client SHALL exercise the

capture operation defined in section 8.1.2 by delivering a message to the endpoint provided by the capture server.

The message SHALL be one of the following:

■ an XML document whose root element conforms to the EPCISDocument element as defined by the schema of section 9.5; or

■ an XML document whose root element conforms to the EPCISQueryDocument element as defined by the schema of section 13.1, where the element

immediately nested within the EPCISBody element is a QueryResults element, and where the resultsBody element within the QueryResults

element contains an EventList element.

JSON/JSON-LD equivalents can be validated by their respective schema.

EPCIS Standard

An implementation of the capture interface SHALL accept the EPCISDocument form and SHOULD accept the EPCISQueryDocument form. An

implementation of the capture interface SHALL NOT accept documents that are not valid as defined above.

Successful acceptance of this message by the

server SHALL constitute capture of all EPCIS events included in the message.

Message queue systems vary in their ability to provide positive and negative acknowledgements to message senders. When a positive acknowledgement

feature is available from the message queue system, a positive acknowledgement MAY be used to indicate successful capture by the capture server. When

a negative acknowledgement feature is available from the message queue system, a negative acknowledgement MAY be used to indicate a failure to

complete the capture operation. Failure may be due to an invalid document, an authorisation failure as described in section 8.1.1

, or for some other

reason. The specific circumstances under which a positive or negative acknowledgement are indicated is implementation-dependent. All implementations,

however, SHALL either accept all events in the message or reject all events.

11.2 HTTP binding

This section defines a binding of the Core Capture Operations Module to HTTP [RFC2616].

An EPCIS implementation MAY provide an HTTP binding of the Core Capture Operations Module in the following manner. For the purposes of this binding, a

“capture client” is an EPCIS Capture Application that wishes to deliver an EPCIS event through the EPCIS Capture Interface, and a “capture server” is an

EPCIS Repository or EPCIS Accessing Application that receives an event from a capture client.

A capture server SHALL provide an HTTP URL through which a capture client may deliver one or more EPCIS events.

A capture client SHALL exercise the

capture operation defined in section 8.1.2 by invoking an HTTP POST operation on the URL provided by the capture

server. The message payload SHALL be one of the following:

■ an XML document whose root element conforms to the EPCISDocument element as defined by the schema of section 9.5; or

■ an XML document whose root element conforms to the EPCISQueryDocument element as defined by the schema of section 13.1, where the element

immediately nested within the EPCISBody element is a QueryResults element, and where the resultsBody element within the QueryResults

element contains an EventList element.

An implementation of the capture interface SHALL accept the EPCISDocument form and SHOULD accept the EPCISQueryDocument form. An

implementation of the capture interface SHALL NOT accept documents that are not valid as defined above. Successful acceptance of this message by the

server SHALL constitute capture of all EPCIS events included in the message.

Status codes returned by the capture server SHALL conform to [RFC2616], section 10. In particular, the capture server SHALL return status code 200 to

indicate successful completion of the capture operation, and any status code 3xx, 4xx, or 5xx SHALL indicate that the capture operation was not

successfully completed. The specific circumstances under which a success or failure code is returned are implementation-dependent. All implementations,

however, SHALL either accept all events in the message or reject all events.

EPCIS Standard

12 REST Bindings

12.1 Code conventions

Complete API specification: The complete specification corresponding to the REST Bindings using the OpenAPI syntax is published at

https://ref.gs1.org/standards/epcis/2.0.0/openapi.json

Media types: To avoid overloading examples with repetitive content descriptions, examples only use the media type application/json instead of the

complete list application/json, application/ld+json and application/xml.

12.2 Introduction to REST

EPCIS 1.x was built on SOAP, a stateful XML-based messaging protocol for distributed enterprise environments.

EPCIS 2.0 adds a RESTful protocol, optimising the web-based capture and query of EPCIS events. With EPCIS 2.0, the Web becomes a platform for a

frictionless integration of business processes in complex supply chain information systems, as well as consumer-facing applications.

The EPCIS REST bindings provide an interface based on Representational State Transfer (REST) architecture style [REST]. REST is the architectural

principle that lies at the heart of the Web. It shares a similar goal with SOAP [SOAP] interfaces already defined in the EPCIS standard, which is to increase

interoperability for a looser coupling between the parts of distributed applications. However, the goal of REST is to achieve this in a more lightweight and

simpler manner, focussing on resources rather than on functions (as is the case with SOAP Web services). In particular, REST uses the Web as an

application platform and fully leverages all the features inherent to HTTP such as authentication, authorisation, encryption, compression, and caching. This

way, REST brings services to the browser and modern Web languages: resources can be queried, linked and bookmarked and the results are visible with

any Web browser or Web tool with no need to generate complex source code out of WSDL files to be able to interact with the service. The EPCIS RESTful

interface uses the stateless HTTP [HTTP] protocol. In REST, URIs not only address individual resources, such as Web pages, but also collections that can

be accessed via the Web using a small number of simple HTTP verbs such as GET, POST, PUT, DELETE. This means REST URIs in EPCIS 2.0 refer to

individual EPCIS events, EPCIS event types and collections of EPCIS events.

This interface is an alternative to the SOAP query control interface already defined in the EPCIS standard. REST complements the SOAP interface and is

meant to foster use cases where modern Web technologies (e.g., Javascript clients or mobile applications) are used to interact with an EPCIS repository,

with the ability to retrieve EPCIS event data via simple Web requests. A new endpoint exposes EPCIS events types and individual events as REST

resources. Furthermore, queries can also be treated as resources in their own right, each described by its URL [URL].

To summarise, the EPCIS 2.0 REST bindings offer:

■ Bulk capturing of events through the /capture interface

■ Complex queries with the possibility to define query trigger rules (i.e., for a streaming query) and subscriptions

■ Events endpoints

■ Top-level resources endpoints

EPCIS Standard

all through a RESTful interface.

Table 12-1 Overview of EPCIS 2.0 endpoints

Endpoint

OPTIONS

GET

POST

DELETE

Equivalent SimpleEventQuery parameter

(section 8.2.7), where applicable

/capture

/capture/{captureID}

/events

/events/{eventID}

/eventTypes

/eventTypes/{eventType}

eventType

/eventTypes/{eventType}/events

/epcs

/epcs/{epc}

/epcs/{epc}/events

/bizSteps

/bizSteps/{bizStep}

/bizSteps/{bizStep}/events

EQ_bizStep

/bizLocations

/bizLocations/{bizLocation}

/bizLocations/{bizLocation}/events

EQ_bizLocation

/readPoints

/readPoints/{readPoint}

/readPoints/{readPoint}/events

EQ_readPoint

/dispositions

/dispositions/{disposition}

/dispositions/{disposition}/events

EQ_disposition

/queries

/queries/{queryName}

/queries/{queryName}/subscriptions

/queries/{queryName}/subscriptions/{subscriptionID}

/queries/{queryName}/events

/nextPageToken/{token}

Each endpoint, shown in the table above, will be described in a machine-readable way using the Open API 3 [OpenAPI] API description format. The

OpenAPI interface description for EPCIS will be a formal artefact of the EPCIS 2.0 standard and linked from the EPCIS landing page at

https://www.gs1.org/epcis. It plays a similar logical role to the WSDL interface described in section 13.

EPCIS Standard

Note that /events is the simplest REST endpoint through which a SimpleEventQuery can be performed.

The RESTful API for EPCIS has been designed for easy discoverability of related endpoints, by aligning with the principles of Hypertext As The Engine Of

Application State [HATEOAS]. For example, the following are examples of endpoints that do not return data – they simply point to one or more related

endpoints (that further extend the URI path information) that do provide data, such as collections of events:

■ /eventTypes/{eventType} points to /eventTypes/{eventType}/events

■ /bizSteps/{bizStep} points to /bizSteps/{bizStep}/events

So just as a human can read a Web page and follow hyperlinks to related resources, software interacting with a RESTful API that supports HATEOAS can

start at any endpoint and may be able to iteratively discover additional endpoints that may be of interest.

EPCIS Standard

12.3 Content negotiation, service discovery and custom headers for EPCIS

Each endpoint SHALL support HTTP content negotiation [HTTPSemanticsContent] for at least JSON [JSON] and JSON-LD [JSONLD], MAY support XML

[XML] and MAY support HTML [HTML] and any other formats. This is done by setting the value of the Accept header, e.g., to application/json,

application/ld+json, application/xml or text/html [RFC7231, RFC7303]. All responses SHALL return a full EPCIS Document containing the list of

events within the EPCIS Body. If the client requests a media type that the server does not support, the server SHALL reply with HTTP status code 406 Not

Acceptable.

EPCIS 2.0 specifies custom headers for client and server to agree on the EPCIS version, vendor version and EPCIS and CBV extensions and the version of

related resources. For all endpoints, an EPCIS server SHALL support GS1-CBV-Version, GS1-EPC-Format, GS1-CBV-Format, GS1-EPCIS-Version, GS1-

EPCIS-Min, GS1-EPCIS-Max and GS1-Extensions. By convention, if a client omits the EPCIS version or EPCIS version min/max range, the server SHALL

use the EPCIS version defined by the GS1-EPCIS-Version header. A server MAY support GS1-Extensions and GS1-Vendor-Version. For the /capture

endpoint, the server SHALL additionally support GS1-EPCIS-Capture-Limit, to specify the maximum number of events that can be captured per call and

SHALL support GS1-EPCIS-Capture-File-Size-Limit to specify the EPCIS document size in bytes / octets. A server SHALL support GS1-Capture-Error-

Behaviour to declare the error behaviour of the capture interface. The default value of GS1-Capture-Error-Behaviour SHALL be rollback. Each custom

header is described in the table below.

Table 12-2 EPCIS and CBV headers

Header Description Examples Request Response

GS1-EPCIS-Version The EPCIS version 1.0.0, 1.1.0, 1.2.0, 2.0.0 X X

GS1-EPCIS-Min The lowest EPCIS version supported >=1.0.0 X X

GS1-EPCIS-Max The highest EPCIS version supported 1.0.0, 1.1.0, 1.2.0, 2.0.0 X X

GS1-CBV-Version The core business vocabulary version 1.2.2, 2.0.0 X X

GS1-EPC-Format Request or response header to indicate whether EPCs

are expressed as GS1 Digital Link URIs or as EPC

URNs.

Always_DL

X X

GS1-CBV-XML-Format Request or response header to indicate whether CBV

URI fields are expressed in XML as URLs or URNs.

Always_URL

X X

GS1-Extensions Specific extensions supported (e.g. for FIT) such as

CBV or EPCIS extensions.

“example-epc-ext”:”http://example.com/epcis/” X X

GS1-Vendor-Version A versioning scheme that can be freely chosen by the

vendor

example-version-1.0 X X

GS1-EPCIS-Capture-Limit The maximum number of EPCIS events that can be

captured per call

500 X

EPCIS Standard

Header Description Examples Request Response

GS1-EPCIS-Capture-File-Size-

Limit

The maximum event document length in octets (8-bit

bytes)

1024 X

GS1-Query-Min-Record-Time An optional header to specify the smallest possible

record time for EPCIS events in a query subscription.

2020-04-04T20:33:31.116-06:00 X

GS1-Capture-Error-Behaviour A header to control how the capture interface will

behave in case of an error:

 rollback: "All or nothing". Either the capture job is

entirely successful or all EPCIS events are rejected.

 proceed: "Greedy capture". The capture interface

tries to capture as many EPCIS events as possible,

even if there are errors.

The default behaviour is rollback, as in EPCIS 1.2.

rollback X X

GS1-Next-Page-Token-Expires The expiry time for nextPageToken. This header is

optional.

2021-12-08T14:58:56.591Z X

GS1-Signature The signature for event pushed via Webhook

subscriptions is contained in the GS1-

Signature HTTP header of the server request.

Each endpoint SHALL respond to the OPTIONS verb by returning the list of allowed HTTP verbs as well as supported headers for a resource and their

default values. This feature was added to provide service discovery and make EPCIS 2.0 future proof by supporting granular versions of EPCIS, CBV and

extensions.

EPCIS Standard

Figure 12-1 Client first uses OPTIONS to discover which versions are supported and making GET request

The server SHALL support the OPTIONS method for each endpoint and SHALL provide default header values for each custom EPCIS header it supports.

EPCIS Standard

12.4 Authentication and Authorization

Figure 12-2 Authentication and authorisation

EPCIS clients SHALL authenticate themselves for every API call. An EPCIS server SHOULD implement an authentication mechanism using the Authorization

header. If the authentication fails, the server SHALL respond with HTTP status code 401 [RFC7235].

Authorized

Request:

GET /eventTypes/ObjectEvent/events HTTP/1.1

Host: example.com

Authorization: MyValidSecretAPIKey

Response:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK

Unauthorized

EPCIS Standard

Request:

GET /eventTypes/ObjectEvent/events HTTP/1.1

Host: example.com

Authorization: MyInvalidSecretAPIKey

Response:

HTTP/1.1 401 Unauthorized

If a client is authenticated but is not authorised to perform an operation, the server SHALL respond with HTTP status code 403 Forbidden [RFC7235].

12.5 Pagination

An EPCIS repository SHALL implement pagination, to return data in manageable chunks. A client MAY request the number of items that are returned at

once, using the perPage query string parameter. If the client does not specify the perPage value, the server SHALL use the default value of 30.

Pages SHALL form a linked list, using the Web link model [RFC8288]. A server SHALL include the quoted URL of the next page in the Link response

header. A link MAY contain a rel annotation. The value next indicates to the client that there are more pages to be accessed. The absence of the next page

means the client has received the URL of the final page.

Events SHALL be returned atomically; events SHALL NOT be split using pagination.

Example: Pagination

Request

GET /events?perPage=50 HTTP/1.1

Host: example.com

Response

HTTP/1.1 200 OK

link: <https://example.com/events?perPage=50&nextPageToken=t%3A1550673874978%2Ci%3AU6D7DENAKwM2gQRRwGrataeq>;

rel=”next”

A server MAY optionally collaborate with clients on resource management by declaring how long a pagination token will remain valid in the optional GS1-

Next-Page-Token-Expires and the server MAY optionally also allow clients to free allocated tokens through a DELETE on the nextPageToken endpoint.

EPCIS Standard

12.6 Capturing EPCIS Events

This section defines the RESTful capture endpoints for EPCIS 2.0. The /events endpoint support synchonous capture of a single bare event (not wrapped in

an EPCISDocument). The /capture endpoint in EPCIS 2.0 expects to receive an EPCISDocument containing one or more events, and is asynchronous to

allow better scalability for larger sets of events.

Endpoint GET POST

/capture Returns IDs of capture

Jobs

Captures one or several EPCIS events. The server may either accept

or reject all events if value of GS1-Capture-Error-Behaviour header

is rollback (this is default behaviour). The server may accept all valid

events if value of GS1-Capture-Error-Behaviour is proceed.

/capture/{captureID} Returns the state of the

capture job.

Not supported.

/events Returns all events Supports synchronous capture of a single bare event, not wrapped

within an EPCISDocument.

12.6.1 Capture Interface

Client calls the capture interface to send one or more EPCIS events in the JSON or JSON-LD format. If the event syntax is XML, events SHALL conform to

the XML event specifications specified in EPCIS 2.0 [EPCIS2.0]. If the event syntax is JSON/JSON-LD, events SHALL conform to the JSON/JSON-LD data

format specified in section 10

EPCIS Standard

Figure 12-3 Endpoint: Capture Interface workflow

If GS1-Capture-Error-Behaviour is rollback, the server SHALL guarantee that either all events are captured, or all events are rejected. If GS1-Capture-

Error-Behaviour is proceed, the server SHALL try to capture as many EPCIS events as possible. If events were successfully accepted, /capture SHALL

respond with 202 Accepted and a captureID. Upon capture, a server MAY populate the unique eventID field within each event. If unique eventIDs are

populated, these SHALL use one of the two eventID formats specified in the section of the CBV that specifies Event Identifiers.

Implementations that specify a file size limit may wish to check content length in order to avoid validating files which exceed this limit; this also provides a

safeguard against denial-of-service attacks.

If the client sends a payload that exceeds the number of events permitted according to GS1-EPCIS-Capture-Limit or the content length exceeds GS1-

EPCIS-Capture-File-Size-Limit, the server MAY respond with 413 Payload Too Large and include the most restrictive capture limit constraint. In other cases

of failures, /capture SHALL indicate why the operation was unsuccessful by returning a HTTP status code in the range 4xx.

EPCIS Standard

12.6.2 Capture Jobs Interface

When EPCIS events are added through the capture interface, the capture process runs asynchronously. If the payload is syntactically correct and the client

is allowed to call /capture, the server returns a 202 Accepted. This does not guarantee successful storage of all EPCIS events. The capture job

endpoint, /capture/{captureID}, SHALL expose the state of the capture job to the client.

A capture job document has at least the following properties:

■ running: whether or not the capture job is still active

■ success: whether or not at least one error occurred,

■ errors or errorFile: with the errors if success is false. Note that errorFile should contain a URL pointing to an error log file.

■ captureErrorBehaviour: one of proceed or rollback (but NEVER all)

■ createdAt: with the time of creation

■ finishedAt: with the time of completion

Only if not a single error occurred, success is true. If success is false, there was at least one error. If the GS1-Capture-Error-Behaviour header

is rollback, a success value of false aborts the capture job and rejects all EPCIS events related to the job. If GS1-Capture-Error-Behaviour header

is proceed, some EPCIS events might still be captured, even if success is false.

Table 12-3 GS1-Capture-Error-Behaviour header value is rollback

Capture job running Capture job success Capture job outcome

true true Still capturing EPCIS events. No errors occurred so far.

true false At least one error occurred. Rollback is in progress.

false true All EPCIS events are captured.

false false All EPCIS events rejected.

Table 12-4 GS1-Capture-Error-Behaviour header value is proceed

Capture job running Capture job success Capture job outcome

true true Still capturing EPCIS events. No errors occurred so far.

true false At least one error occurred but more EPCIS events are currently being captured.

false true All EPCIS events were captured without an error.

false false Some EPCIS events were captured but errors occurred.

If success is false, check the errors or errorFile property for details.

EPCIS Standard

12.7 Events interface

This section defines the events endpoints, which provides a RESTful interface to EPCIS events. EPCIS events can be “viewed” from four different aspects:

■ EPCIS event type: EPCIS events can be accessed through their EPCIS event type via /eventTypes/{eventType}/events

■ Top-level resources: EPCIS events can be accessed based on their context, for example, all EPCIS events at a given location can be accessed through

the /bizLocation/events endpoint.

■ /events resource: EPCIS events can be accessed through the /events endpoint. A specific individual event can be retrieved using the

/events/{eventID} endpoint.

■ Query result: EPCIS events can be part of a result of an EPCIS query.

Table 12-5 Overview of EPCIS 2.0 events related endpoints

Endpoint Functionality

/events Returns all EPCIS events.

Note that /events is the simplest REST endpoint through which a SimpleEventQuery (see section 8.2.7.1

) can be

performed.

/events/{eventID} Returns a single event identified by eventID.

/eventTypes/{eventType}/events Returns all EPCIS events of a specific type

Returns EPCIS event(s) related to the given eventType only.

/epcs/{epc}/events Returns all EPCIS events corresponding to the given epc with a specific top-level resource.

/bizSteps/{bizStep}/events Returns EPCIS event(s) related to the given bizStep.

/bizLocations/{bizLocation}/events Returns EPCIS event(s) related to the given bizLocation.

/readPoints/{readPoint}/events Returns EPCIS event(s) related to the given readPoint.

/dispositions/{disposition}/events Returns EPCIS event(s) related to the given disposition.

/queries/{queryName}/events Returns EPCIS events that match the query.

The /events endpoint as well as all the */events endpoints support additional filtering using the EPCIS query language.

12.7.1 EPCIS events collections

When calling the GET method on the /eventTypes endpoint, it SHALL return a list of all EPCIS event types that are present in that repository. Furthermore,

calling the GET method on /events SHALL return all the EPCIS events present in the repository (subject to pagination and refinement via the EPCIS query

language).

EPCIS Standard

EPCIS 2.0 supports a number of optional top-level resources (see section 12.7.4). By definition, top-level resources SHALL NOT be nested. For example,

/eventTypes/ObjectEvent/events and /readPoints/urn:epc:id:sgln:9521321.00777.0/events are valid paths.

/readPoints/urn:epc:id:sgln:9521321.00777.0/bizSteps/shipping/events is an invalid path because top-level resource nesting is currently not supported.

12.7.2 EPCIS events endpoints

Each EPCIS event type URL SHALL be identified by a unique URL, such as https://example.com/eventTypes/ObjectEvent/events for the collection of object

events. Furthermore, for the /events/{eventID} endpoint, if the eventID is populated, then each event SHALL use one of the Event IDs syntax specified in

section 8.9 of the CBV.

EPCIS Standard

12.7.3 Event filtering with the EPCIS query language

Figure 12-4 EPCIS query as URL query parameters

EPCIS defines a domain-specific query language, described in section 8.2, as well as dedicated endpoints for queries, described in section 13

. That

section describes how to filter events using the EPCIS query language in the URL.

EPCIS query as URL query parameters

https://example.com/eventTypes/ObjectEvent/events?EQ_bizStep=shipping

URLs MAY be percent-encoded where appropriate, as defined in [RFC3986]. However, when the characters / ? = and & are used with their special

meanings to delimit the structural components of a URL or URL query string, such characters SHALL NOT be percent encoded.

EPCIS Standard

Accessing collection of EPCIS events using EPCIS query or path values

Please note that some queries can also be expressed without query string parameters as a simpler EPCIS 2.0 REST resource. For example

https://example.com/events?EQ_bizStep=shipping

is functionally equivalent to

https://example.com/bizSteps/shipping/events

Expression of query parameters within the URL query string is more suitable for complex queries.

12.7.4 Top-level resources

EPCIS 2.0 REST bindings aim to provide an intuitive interface for a variety of use cases and industries, while keeping the API lean and straightforward.

This section discusses the mandatory top-level resources and how Core Business Vocabulary [CBV] extensions can be used to explore existing resources

and to address EPCIS events. An EPCIS 2.0 server MAY provide additional endpoints to describe the context of an EPCIS event.

An EPCIS server SHALL support the top-level resources /epcs and /events , and MAY support /eventTypes, /bizLocations, /bizSteps,

/readPoints and /dispositions.

One good reason to support this would be (for example) a situation in which a customer wishes to receive events from its supplier, but does not know

SSCC EPCs in advance, and could instead specify its own SGLN as destination.

The recommended additional top-level resources are:

Table 12-6 Top-level resources endpoints

Top-level resource As RESTful resource Description

(root) / Used with OPTIONS to discover server capabilities.

Events /events Returns a list of all events, potentially constrained by

parameters expressed in the query string.

Event ID /events/{eventID} Returns event(s) matching this eventID.

Note that this may return more than one event if the

eventID is present in subsequent events that include an

ErrorDeclaration to indicate that the original event was

in error.

Electronic product code /epcs Returns all electronic product codes that populate the

fields in the WHAT dimension.

/epcs/{epc} Returns the sub-resource "events".

EPCIS Standard

Top-level resource As RESTful resource Description

/epcs/{epc}/events Returns all EPCIS events for the electronic product code.

Note that the response is subject to the redaction

provisions described in section 8.2.2

, as well as

QueryTooLarge and 403 Payload Too Large exceptions.

Business location /bizLocations Returns all business locations.

/bizLocations/{bizLocation} Returns the sub-resource "events".

/bizLocations/{bizLocation}/events Returns all EPCIS events in a given business location.

Business step /bizSteps Returns all business steps.

/bizSteps/{bizStep} Returns the sub-resource "events".

/bizSteps/{bizStep}/events Returns all EPCIS events associated with the business

step.

Read point /readPoints Returns all read points.

/readPoints/{readPoint} Returns the sub-resource "events".

/readPoints/{readPoint}/events Returns all EPCIS events associated with the read point.

Disposition /dispositions Returns all dispositions.

/dispositions/{disposition} Returns the sub-resource "events".

/dispositions/{disposition}/events Returns all EPCIS events with the disposition.

By default, when a value of {bizLocation}, {bizStep}, {readPoint} or {disposition} is expressed without a namespace qualifier within an endpoint URL, the

value SHALL be considered to be using the GS1 Core Business Vocabulary (CBV). If a value is not using the CBV, the URI of the vocabulary SHALL be

specified in the GS1-Extensions header as a mapping to a Compact URI Expression [CURIE] prefix and the value itself SHALL be expressed as a Compact

URI Expression [CURIE]. If GS1-Extensions contains more than one vocabulary, each vocabulary SHALL be separated by a “,”. The motivation for

introducing the GS1-Extensions header was to provide for simpler URLs while maintaining the flexibility to use custom vocabularies. If the GS1-Extensions

header is set and the complete resource address is set, specifying the complete resource address for top-level resources SHALL take precedence over the

vocabulary specified in the GS1-Extensions header.

Example: GS1-Extensions header omitted

Path: /bizSteps/shipping/events

Expands to urn:epcglobal:cbv:bizstep:shipping because no vocabulary was specified in the header.

Example: "GS1-Extensions" : {"ex1" : "<https://example.com/vendor1#>"}

EPCIS Standard

Path: /bizSteps/shipping/events

Expands to urn:epcglobal:cbv:bizstep:shipping because the CBV namespace was defined, even though GS1-Extensions points to a different vocabulary.

Example: "GS1-Extensions" : {"ex1": "<https://example.com/vendor1#>"}

Path: /bizSteps/ex1:qualityCheck/events

Expands to: https://example.com/vendor1#qualityCheck because ex1 is a prefix defined in GS1-Extensions.

Example: "GS1-Extensions" : "ex1 : <https://example.com/vendor1#, vendor2:<https://example.org/defs#> "

Path: /bizSteps/vendor2:QA/events

Expands to: https://example.org/defs#QA because vendor2 is one of two vocabulary prefixes defined in GS1-Extensions.

12.8 Query control interface

EPCIS SHALL support named queries through the /queries endpoint. The EPCIS query language is defined in section 12.8.4.

EPCIS Standard

Figure 12-5 Endpoint: Named queries workflow

A named query resembles a stored procedure. It consists of a human-readable name and a query definition. The name SHALL be unique, as it is part of a

query’s URL. The query SHALL be defined on creation time and transmitted in the request body.

Table 12-7 EPCIS query endpoints

Endpoint Verb

GET POST DELETE

/queries Returns all named

queries.

EPCIS Standard

/queries/{queryName} Returns the named query Creates and executes a

named EPCIS events

query and returns

results with the option

to use pagination if

needed.

Removes a named query and

forcibly unsubscribes all

active subscriptions, whether

by WebSockets or

WebHooks.

/queries/{queryName}/events Returns all EPCIS events

that match the query or

creates a new Websocket

subscriptions.

/queries/{queryName}/subscriptions Returns active Webhook

subscriptions with the

option to use pagination

if needed.

Creates a new query

subscription

/queries/{queryName}/subscriptions/{subscriptionID} Information about a

Webhook subscription

Unsubscribes the client.

12.8.1 Creating and using named queries

A named query creates a virtual collection of events (i.e., a view). It has a human-readable name and a query defined using the EPCIS query language.

The result set of an EPCIS events query has the following URL pattern: /queries/{queryName}/events.

A named query is created by specifying the query name, the type of query (EPCIS events or master data) and the query body. The client can use the Link

header to obtain the matching resources using pagination. If the query is for EPCIS events, the query results endpoint is events. The client can also fetch

all events that match the query description using these endpoints.

Once a query is created, clients can always retrieve the current set of resources that match the query description.

EPCIS Standard

Figure 12-6 Client creates a named query for EPCIS events and uses pagination to retrieve all EPCIS events.

12.8.2 Deleting named queries

A named query can be deleted by calling the DELETE method on its URL. Deleting a named query also deletes all query subscriptions and disconnects all

clients that are subscribed to query subscriptions.

12.8.3 Subscribing to named queries

A named EPCIS events query SHALL support subscription using HTTP callbacks (aka Webhooks) and MAY support subscription using WebSockets. The

server should guarantee that clients only receive events they are authorised to receive. When connecting to a query subscription, the client SHALL have

EPCIS Standard

the option to specify from when onwards the query applies with the initial record time (initialRecordTime parameter). If the initial record time is omitted, it

defaults to the time at which the subscription was created.

By default, a client SHALL only receive a query result when the query result is not empty. The client can overwrite this behaviour by setting the report if

empty (reportIfEmpty parameter) to true. This means that the client will receive an empty query result set when the query does not match any events.

The server MAY implement the minimum record time (minRecordTime parameter), which specifies the lower bound (in time) of EPCIS events that are

contained in the result set. If the server implements support for minimum record time, the value should be set to the most recent execution time of the

query subscription.

To ensure that clients receive EPCIS events when the connection between client and server is temporarily lost, the server MAY provide a quality of service

that guarantees a message is delivered at least one time to the receiver. If the server provides quality of service and the minimum record time is set, the

server SHOULD return all EPCIS events starting from the minimum record time.

If the subscription contains an error, the server SHALL respond with HTTP status code 400 and indicate the error as SubscriptionControlsException.

Table 12-8 Query endpoint usage overview

How to... Webhooks (HTTP Callbacks) - SHALL Websockets - MAY

Create a new query POST /queries/{queryName} POST /queries/{queryName}

Fetch events synchronously (via HTTP) GET /queries/{queryName}/events GET /queries/{queryName}/events

Subscribe to query POST /queries/{queryName}/subscriptions 1. GET /queries/{queryName}/events

2. Upgrade to Websocket protocol

Configure the subscription As properties subscription request payload. As URL query string parameters in the subscription

request.

Notify subscriber even if the query result

is empty

reportIfEmpty is true in the subscription request payload. reportIfEmpty is true in the URL query string parameter of

the subscription request.

Overwrite the initial record time for a

query subscription

Assign a timestamp to the initialRecordTime property in the

subscription request payload.

Assign a timestamp to the initialRecordTime URL query

string parameter in the subscription request.

Track the minimum record time for

quality of service

Server maintains the timestamp of the most recent client

notification in the minRecordTime property of the subscription

resource.

Server maintains the timestamp of the most recent client

notification in the GS1-Query-Min-Record-Time header.

Secure the subscription signatureToken must be generated by the client and is used by

the server to authenticate itself and sign messages when

sending events. The signature must be contained on the GS1-

Signature HTTP header of the server request.

No additional step is needed.

EPCIS Standard

How to... Webhooks (HTTP Callbacks) - SHALL Websockets - MAY

Publish query results

(Server to client)

POST https://client.com/callbackDest EPCISQueryDocument... WebSocket.send(EPCISQueryDocument)

Unsubscribe DELETE /queries/{queryName}/subscriptions/s123 WebSocket.close()

12.8.3.1 Scheduled queries

Scheduled queries are cron-like [CRON] queries that are executed in predefined time intervals. A scheduled query SHOULD push a list of events that

match the query description to all subscribed clients. A scheduled query is not defined by the query name but by the schedule, which is specified in

subscription payload (Webhook) or query parameters (Websocket). The REST API schedule uses the same query schedule parameters and meanings as

section 8.2.5.3

EPCIS Standard

Figure 12-7 Scheduled query workflow

12.8.3.2 Streaming queries

If no query schedule is specified, the client must explicitly set stream to true. This restriction is to prevent clients from accidentally subscribing to EPCIS

event streams. Whenever a captured EPCIS event matches the query criteria, the client is notified. The query SHALL only execute if a new event matches

the query in full. Upon execution, all subscribed clients SHOULD receive the list of events.

EPCIS Standard

Figure 12-8 Event streaming query workflow

Scheduled query conditions and stream flag SHALL be mutually exclusive.

12.8.3.3 Webhook (HTTP Callback) for query subscription

Creating query subscription using Webhooks requires the client to provide a single endpoint to which the server will send events and a subscription secret

that the client needs to authenticate itself when sending events. The subscription secret must be generated by the client. When the client subscribes to a

EPCIS Standard

query, it must either set stream to true, to be notified whenever a new EPCIS event matches the query, or the client must define a query schedule. If

these are missing the query subscription is invalid because the server won't know when to notify a client.

Figure 12-9 Query subscription with Webhook (HTTP Callback)

12.8.3.4 WebSocket for query subscription

In addition to Webhooks, EPCIS 2.0 adds the WebSocket protocol, which maintains a persistent connection without requiring the client to run a Web

server. An EPCIS server MAY support query subscription based on the WebSocket protocol for scheduled queries and for streaming queries. Websocket

support is provided through the /queries/{namedQueries}/events endpoints. Unlike Webhook subscriptions, Websocket query subscription parameters are

specified as URL query string parameters.

EPCIS Standard

Figure 12-10 Query subscription with a WebSocket

EPCIS Standard

12.8.4 EPCIS query language

EPCIS queries are constructed using an EPCIS specific query language. The simplest query consists of an operand name followed by an underscore “_” and

an EPCIS resource property name (e.g., GE_eventTime(“2005-07-11T11:30:47.0Z”)). A compound query can specify conditions for more than one

property. Implicitly, a logical “AND” conjunction connects the clauses in a compound query, e.g., GE_eventTime(“2005-07-11T11:30:47.0Z”),

eventTypes(‘ObjectEvent’).

EPCIS queries can be expressed as query string parameters or as an EPCIS JSON query document. An EPCIS 2.0 server SHALL support the URL query

string parameters syntax and SHOULD support the JSON EPCIS query document syntax. The EPCIS JSON query document syntax is recommended when

the URL length exceeds 2000 character

NOTE:

Using the REST interface, it is possible to express EPCIS query parameters within a JSON object or via the URI query string. Also, endpoints such as

/bizSteps/{bizStep}/events effectively also express an EPCIS query parameter with a single value, in this case {bizStep} is equivalent to specifying

EQ_bizStep={bizStep} in the URI query string.

Clearly this flexibility could lead to situations where conflicting values are specified for a parameter via more than one of these three methods (URI path

information / endpoint template, URI query string, JSON object expressing a query).

In order to avoid such conflicts, a QueryParameterException SHALL be thrown if the same query parameter (or implied parameter) is specified via more

than one of these mechanisms.

As an illustrative example, if {bizStep} is specified in the URI path info of the endpoint, a QueryParameterException is thrown if EQ_bizStep is also

specified via the URI query string

Certain fields (e.g. parentID, childEPClist, inputEPClist , outputEPClist , etc.) are only valid within specific event types. The consequences are that:

1. Events of a type incompatible with the field specified in a query parameter will not be returned.

2. There is potential conflict if eventType query parameter specifies an event type that does not support a field that is specified in another query

parameter.

12.8.5 EPCIS query in the URL

The URL length SHALL be limited to 2000 characters. This limitation is to guarantee support for most browsers and Web servers. An EPCIS query in the

URL SHALL be percent-encoded (see [RFC3986]) and inserted in the URL following “?”. The “=” infix operator SHALL have the query parameter on the left

and value on the right. If the EPCIS query parameter supports an array of values, each value SHALL be separated by a vertical pipe “|”. Each clause within

the URL query string SHALL be connected by an “&”.

Example EPCIS query as escaped query parameters

EPCIS Standard

https://example.com/epcs/urn:epc:id:sgtin:9521321.107346.2018?EQ_bizStep=shipping%7Cdecommissioning&GE_eventTime=2015-03-

15T00%3A00%3A00.000-04%3A00

1.1.1. Query body syntax

The REST interface does not support XML format epcis:QueryDocument to formulate queries. An EPCIS 2.0 query body using the REST interface SHALL be

serialised as a JSON object. The value of the query key within that JSON object SHALL validate against the schema defined at:

https://ref.gs1.org/standards/epcis/2.0.0/

query-schema.json

POST /queries/{queryName} endpoint SHALL accept a request body in application/ld+json (JSON-LD) or application/json (JSON) format. When the

request body is in application/ld+json (JSON-LD) format, it MAY contain an @context

field to specify namespace information for user extension query

parameters. These endpoints also support the GS1-Extensions request header, which serves the same purpose to allow users to provide namespace

information as comma-separated values. If the user provides data in both request header GS1-Extensions and field @context then the combined effect of

both MUST be taken into final consideration. In case of conflicts in which a CURIE prefix is mapped to more than one namespace or URI stem or a JSON

key is mapped to more than one URI, the client must be notified with HTTP status code 400 with the reason mentioning the conflicting mappings of keys

or namespace prefixes.

EPCIS 2.0 defines a standard context resource for the JSON-LD format of EPCIS data and any user-defined mappings SHALL NOT conflict with those.

Example:

Example EPCIS 2.0 query body

{

"name": "UniqueQueryName",

"query": {

"eventType": [

"ObjectEvent"

"EQ_bizStep": [

"shipping",

"receiving"

]

EPCIS Standard

}

12.9 Backward Compatibility of REST bindings with EPCIS 1.2

The EPCIS 2.0 REST bindings maintains backward semantic compatibility with EPCIS 1.2. This means that legacy EPCIS repositories and clients will be

able to seamlessly interface with EPCIS 2.0 REST bindings through a proxy or adapter which maps between EPCIS 1.2 SOAP endpoints to EPCIS 2.0 REST

endpoints. In addition to defining a backwards compatible EPCIS RESTful API, EPCIS 2.0 extends EPCIS 1.2 with characteristics that can be expected from

a RESTful webservice.

12.10 EPCIS Error Conditions and HTTP Status Code Mapping

EPCIS 1.2 defined a number of error conditions and their underlying causes that an EPCIS server returns [EPCIS1.2]. This section maps error conditions,

as originally defined in [EPCIS1.2], to HTTP status codes. Error responses SHALL be formatted using the “Problem Details for HTTP APIs” [RFC7807]

format.

The following table maps HTTP status codes to EPCIS exceptions. An EPCIS 2.0 server SHALL return HTTP status codes and SHALL include the exceptions

in the body and MAY provide additional information regarding the exception.

Table 12-9 EPCIS exceptions and HTTP status codes

EPCIS Exceptions HTTP Status Codes

epcisException:ValidationException 400

epcisException:QueryValidationException 400

epcisException:QueryParameterException 400

epcisException:SubscriptionControlsException 400

epcisException:SecurityException 403, 401

epcisException:NoSuchResourceException

404

epcisException:NotAcceptableException 406

epcisException:ResourceAlreadyExistsException 409

epcisException:CaptureLimitExceededException 413

Examples of resources that cannot be found could include (but are not limited to) readPoint, eventID, epc, etc.

EPCIS Standard

EPCIS Exceptions HTTP Status Codes

epcisException:QueryTooLargeException 413

epcisException:QueryTooComplexException 413

epcisException:URITooLongException 414

epcisException:UnsupportedMediaTypeException 415

epcisException:ImplementationException 501, 500

EPCIS Standard

The type field of a problem response body expects a URI. The server MAY use the Compact URI Expression with epcisExceptions as namespace. For

example, if the server encounters a SecurityException, it will respond with:

Example: Client lacks valid authentication to access /events

{

"type": "epcisExceptions:SecurityException",

"title": "Access denied",

"status": 401,

"detail": "User is not permitted to access /events"

}

If the client’s preference cannot be satisfied by the server’s declared capabilities, then an HTTP 406 response (epcisException:NotAcceptableException)

may result.

EPCIS Standard

13 Bindings for core query operations module

This section defines bindings for the Core Query Operations Module, as follows:

Interface Binding Document section

Query

Control

Interface

SOAP over HTTP (WSDL) Section 13.2

XML over AS2 Section 13.3

Query

Callback

Interface

XML over HTTP Section 13.3

XML over HTTP+TLS (HTTPS) Section 13.3

XML over AS2 Section 13.3

All of these bindings share a common XML syntax, specified in section 13.1. The XML schema has the following ingredients:

■ XML elements for the argument and return signature of each method in the Query Control Interface as defined in section 8.2.5

■ XML types for each of the datatypes used in those argument and return signatures

■ XML elements for each of the exceptions defined in section 8.2.6

■ XML elements for the Query Callback Interface as defined in section 8.2.8. (These are actually just a subset of the previous three bullets.)

■ An EPCISQueryDocument element, which is used as an “envelope” by bindings whose underlying technology does not provide its own envelope or

header mechanism (specifically, all bindings except for the SOAP binding). The AS2 binding uses this to provide a header to match requests and

responses. The EPCISQueryDocument element shares the EPCISHeader type defined in section 9.5. Each binding specifies its own rules for using this

header, if applicable.

13.1 XML schema for core query operations module

The XML schema for the core query operations module, published at https://ref.gs1.org/standards/epcis/2.0.0/epcglobal-epcis-query-2_0.xsd , defines

XML representations of data types, requests, responses, and exceptions used by the EPCIS Query Control Interface and EPCIS Query Callback Interface in

the Core Query Operations Module. This schema is incorporated by reference into all of the bindings for these two interfaces specified in the remainder of

this section

12. This schema SHOULD be used by any new binding of any interface within the Core Query Operations Module that uses XML as the

underlying message format.

The QueryParam type defined in the schema is used to represent a query parameter as used by the poll and subscribe methods of the query interface

defined in section 8.2.5

. A query parameter consists of a name and a value. The XML schema specifies xsd:anyType for the value, so that a parameter

EPCIS Standard

value of any type can be represented. When creating a document instance, the actual value SHALL conform to a type appropriate for the query parameter,

as defined in the following table:

Parameter type XML type for value element

AnyURI xsd:anyURI

Boolean xsd:boolean

Date xsd:date

Decimal xsd:decimal

Double xsd:double

HexBinary xsd:hexBinary

Int xsd:integer

Float xsd:float

DateTimeStamp xsd:dateTimeStamp

String xsd:string

List of String epcisq:ArrayOfString

Void epcisq:VoidHolder

In particular, the table above SHALL be used to map the parameter types specified for the predefined queries of section 8.2.7 into the corresponding XML

types.

Each <value> element specifying a query parameter value in an instance document MAY include an xsi:type attribute as specified in [XSD1]. The following

rules specify how query parameter values are processed:

■ When a <value> element does not include an xsi:type attribute, the subscribe or poll method of the Query Control Interface SHALL raise a

QueryParameterException if the specified value is not valid syntax for the type required by the query parameter.

■ When a <value> element does include an xsi:type attribute, the following rules apply:

1. If the body of the <value> element is not valid syntax for the type specified by the xsi:type attribute, the EPCISQueryDocument or SOAP request

MAY be rejected by the implementation’s XML parser.

2. If the value of the xsi:type attribute is not the correct type for that query parameter as specified in the second column of the table above, the

subscribe or poll method of the Query Control Interface MAY raise a QueryParameterException, even if the body of the <value> element is valid

syntax for the type required by the query parameter.

EPCIS Standard

3. If the body of the <value> element is not valid syntax for the type required by the query parameter, the subscribe or poll method of the Query

Control Interface SHALL raise a QueryParameterException unless the EPCISQueryDocument or SOAP request was rejected by the implementation’s

XML parser according to the rule above.

This schema imports additional schemas as shown in the following table:

Namespace Location reference Source

urn:epcglobal:xsd:2 epcglobal.xsd Section 9.3

http://www.unece.org/cefact/namespaces

/StandardBusinessDocumentHeader

StandardBusinessDocumentHeader.xsd UN/CEFACT web site; see

section 9.2

urn:epcglobal:epcis:xsd:2 epcglobal-epcis-2_0.xsd Section 9.5

In addition to the constraints implied by the schema, any value of type xsd:dateTimeStamp in an instance document SHALL include a time zone specifier

(either “Z” for UTC or an explicit offset from UTC).

For any XML element of type xsd:anyURI or xsd:string that specifies minOccurs="0", an EPCIS implementation SHALL treat an instance having the empty

string as its value in exactly the same way as it would if the element were omitted altogether.

The schema for the Core Query Operations Module is published at https://ref.gs1.org/standards/epcis/2.0.0/epcglobal-epcis-query-2_0.xsd

13.2 SOAP/HTTP binding for the query control interface

The Web Service Description Language (WSDL) 1.1 [WSDL1.1] specification published at https://ref.gs1.org/standards/epcis/2.0.0/epcis-query-2_0.wsdl

defines the standard SOAP/HTTP binding of the EPCIS Query Control Interface. An EPCIS implementation MAY provide a SOAP/HTTP binding of the EPCIS

Query Control Interface; if a SOAP/HTTP binding is provided, it SHALL conform to the following WSDL. This SOAP/HTTP binding is compliant with the WS-I

Basic Profile Version 1.0 [WSI]. This binding builds upon the schema defined in section 13.1.

If an EPCIS implementation providing the SOAP binding receives an input that is syntactically invalid according to this WSDL, the implementation SHALL

indicate this in one of the two following ways: the implementation MAY raise a ValidationException, or it MAY raise a more generic exception provided by

the SOAP processor being used.

13.3 AS2 Binding for the query control interface

This section defines a binding of the EPCIS Query Control Interface to AS2 [RFC4130]. An EPCIS implementation MAY provide an AS2 binding of the EPCIS

Query Control Interface; if an AS2 binding is provided it SHALL conform to the provisions of this section. For the purposes of this binding, a “query client”

is an EPCIS Accessing Application that wishes to issue EPCIS query operations as defined in section 8.2.5

, and a “query server” is an EPCIS Repository or

other system that carries out such operations on behalf of the query client.

EPCIS Standard

A query server SHALL provide an HTTP URL through which it receives messages from a query client in accordance with [RFC4130]. A message sent by a

query client to a query server SHALL be an XML document whose root element conforms to the EPCISQueryDocument element as defined by the schema

in section 13.1

. The element immediately nested within the EPCISBody element SHALL be one of the elements corresponding to an EPCIS Query Control

Interface method request (i.e., one of Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Poll, etc.). The permitted elements are listed in the table below. If the message sent by the

query client fails to conform to the above requirements, the query server SHALL respond with a ValidationException (that is, return an

EPCISQueryDocument instance where the element immediately nested within the EPCISBody is a ValidationException).

The query client SHALL provide an HTTP URL that the query server will use to deliver a response message. This URL is typically exchanged out of band, as

part of setting up a bilateral trading partner agreement (see [RFC4130] section 5.1).

Both the query client and query server SHALL comply with the Requirements and SHOULD comply with the Recommendations listed in the GS1 document

“EDIINT AS1 and AS2 Transport Communications Guidelines” [EDICG]. For reference, the relevant portions of this document are reproduced below.

The query client SHALL include the Standard Business Document Header within the EPCISHeader element. The query client SHALL include within the

Standard Business Document Header a unique identifier as the value of the InstanceIdentifier element. The query client MAY include other elements within

the Standard Business Document Header as provided by the schema. The instance identifier provided by the query client SHOULD be unique with respect

to all other messages for which the query client has not yet received a corresponding response. As described below, the instance identifier is copied into

the response message, to assist the client in correlating responses with requests.

A query server SHALL respond to each message sent by a query client by delivering a response message to the URL provided by the query client, in

accordance with [RFC4130]. A response message sent by a query server SHALL be an XML document whose root element conforms to the

EPCISQueryDocument element as defined by the schema in section 13.1

. The element immediately nested within the EPCISBody element SHALL be one of

the elements shown in the following table, according to the element that was provided in the corresponding request:

Request element Permitted return elements

GetQueryNames GetQueryNamesResult

SecurityException

ValidationException

ImplementationException

Subscribe SubscribeResult

NoSuchNameException

InvalidURIException

DuplicateSubscriptionException

QueryParameterException

QueryTooComplexException

SubscriptionControlsException

SubscribeNotPermittedException

SecurityException

ValidationException

ImplementationException

EPCIS Standard

Request element Permitted return elements

Unsubscribe UnsubscribeResult

NoSuchSubscriptionException

SecurityException

ValidationException

ImplementationException

GetSubscriptionIDs GetSubscriptionIDsResult

NoSuchNameException

SecurityException

ValidationException

ImplementationException

Poll QueryResults

QueryParameterException

QueryTooLargeException

QueryTooComplexException

NoSuchNameException

SecurityException

ValidationException

ImplementationException

GetStandardVersion GetStandardVersionResult

SecurityException

ValidationException

ImplementationException

GetVendorVersion GetVendorVersionResult

SecurityException

ValidationException

ImplementationException

The query server SHALL include the Standard Business Document Header within the EPCISHeader element. The query server SHALL include within the

Standard Business Document Header the BusinessScope element containing a Scope element containing a CorrelationInformation element containing a

RequestingDocumentInstanceIdentifier element; the value of the latter element SHALL be the value of the InstanceIdentifier element from the Standard

Business Document Header of the corresponding request. Within the Scope element, the Type subelement SHALL be set to EPCISQuery, and the

InstanceIdentifier element SHALL be set to EPCIS. The query server MAY include other elements within the Standard Business Document Header as

provided by the schema.

EPCIS Standard

13.3.1 GS1 AS2 guidelines (Non-Normative)

As stated above, the query client and query server SHALL comply with the Requirements and SHOULD comply with the Recommendations listed in

the GS1 document “EDIINT AS1 and AS2 Transport Communications Guidelines” [EDICG] For reference, the relevant portions of this document are

reproduced below. This extract is marked non-normative; in the case of conflict between [EDICG] and what is written below, [EDICG] shall prevail.

Digital Certificate Requirements

Requirement 1

Payload data SHALL be encrypted and digitally signed using the S/MIME specification (see RFC 3851).

Requirement 2

The length of the one-time session (symmetric) key SHALL be 128 bits or greater.

Requirement 3

The length of the Public/Private Encryption key SHALL be 1024 bits or greater.

Requirement 4

The length of the Public/Private Signature key SHALL be 1024 bits or greater.

Requirement 5

The Signature Hash algorithm used SHALL be SHA1.

Configuration Requirement

Requirement 6

Digitally signed receipts (Signed Message Disposition Notifications (MDNs)) SHALL be requested by the Sender of Message.

Recommendations

Recommendation 1 – MDN Request Option

Either Asynchronous or Synchronous MDNs MAY be used with EDIINT AS2. There are potential issues with both synchronous and asynchronous MDNs, and

Trading Partners need to jointly determine which option is best based on their operational environments and message characteristics.

Recommendation 2 – MDN Delivery

Recipients SHOULD transmit the MDN as soon as technically possible to ensure that the message sender recognises that the message has been received

and processed by the receiving EDIINT software in a timely fashion. This applies equally to AS1 and AS2 as well as Asynchronous and Synchronous MDN

requests.

EPCIS Standard

Recommendation 3 – Delivery Retry with Asynchronous MDNs Requested

When a message has been successfully sent, but an asynchronous MDN has not been received in a timely manner, the Sender of Message SHOULD wait a

configurable amount of time and then automatically resend the original message with the same content and the same Message-ID value as the initial

message. The period of time to wait for a MDN and then automatically resend the original message is based on business and technical needs, but

generally SHOULD be not be less than one hour. There SHOULD be no more than two automatic resends of a message before personally contacting a

technical support contact at the Receiver of Message site.

Recommendation 4 – Delivery Retry for AS2

Delivery retry SHOULD take place when any HTTP response other than “200 OK” or "202 Accepted" is received (for example, 401, 500, 502, 503, timeout,

etc). This occurrence indicates that the actual transfer of data was not successful. A delivery retry of a message SHALL have the same content and the

same Message-ID value as the initial message. Retries SHOULD occur on a configurable schedule. Retrying SHALL cease when a message is successfully

sent (which is indicated by receiving a HTTP 200 range status code, e.g., "200 OK" or "202 Accepted"), or SHOULD cease when a retry limit is exceeded.

Recommendation 5 – Message Resubmission

If neither automated Delivery Retry nor automated Delivery Resend are successful, the Sender of Message MAY elect to resubmit the payload data in a

new message at a later time. The Receiver of Message MAY also request message resubmission if a message was lost subsequent to a successful receive.

If the message is resubmitted a new Message-ID MUST be used. Resubmission is normally a manual compensation.

Recommendation 6 – HTTP vs. HTTP/S (SSL)

For EDIINT AS2, the transport protocol HTTP SHOULD be used. However, if there is a need to secure the AS2-To and the AS2-From addresses and other

AS2 header information, HTTPS MAY be used in addition to the payload encryption provided by AS2. The encryption provided by HTTPS secures only the

point to point communications channel directly between the client and the server.

Recommendation 7 – AS2 Header

For EDIINT AS2, the values used in the AS2-From and AS2-To fields in the header SHOULD be GS1 Global Location Numbers (GLNs).

Recommendation 8 - SMTP

[not applicable]

Recommendation 9 - Compression

EDIINT compression MAY be used as an option, especially if message sizes are larger than 1MB. Although current versions of EDIINT software handle

compression automatically, this SHOULD be bilaterally agreed between the sender and the receiver.

Recommendation 10 – Digital Certificate Characteristics

Digital certificates MAY either be from a trusted third party or self-signed if bilaterally agreed between trading partners. If certificates from a third party

are used, the trust level SHOULD be at a minimum what is termed ‘Class 2’ which ensures that validation of the individual and the organisation has been

done.

Recommendation 11 – Common Digital Certificate for Encryption & Signature

EPCIS Standard

A single digital certificate MAY be used for both encryption and signatures. However, if business processes dictate, two separate certificates MAY be used.

Although current versions of EDIINT software handle two certificates automatically, this SHOULD be bilaterally agreed between the sender and the

receiver.

Recommendation 12 – Digital Certificate Validity Period

The minimum validity period for a certificate SHOULD be 1 year. The maximum validity period SHOULD be 5 years.

Recommendation 13 – Digital Certificate – Automated Exchange

The method for certificate exchange SHALL be bilaterally agreed upon. When the “Certificate Exchange Messaging for EDIINT” specification is widely

implemented by software vendors, its use will be strongly recommended. This IETF specification will enable automated certificate exchange once the initial

trust relationship is established, and will significantly reduce the operational burden of manually exchanging certificates prior to their expiration.

Recommendation 14 – HTTP and HTTP/S Port Numbers for AS2

Receiving AS2 messages on a single port (for each protocol) significantly minimises operational complexities such as firewall set-up for both the sending

and receiving partner. Ideally, all AS2 partners would receive messages using the same port number. However, some AS2 partners have previously

standardised to use a different port number than others and changing to a new port number would add costs without commensurate benefits.

Therefore, AS2 partners MAY standardise on the use of port 4080 to receive HTTP messages and the use of port 5443 to receive HTTP/S (SSL) messages.

Recommendation 15 – Duplicate AS2 Messages

AS2 software implementations SHOULD use the ‘AS2 Message-ID’ value to detect duplicate messages and avoid sending the payload from the duplicate

message to internal business applications. The Receiver of Message SHALL return an appropriate MDN even when a message is detected as a duplicate.

Note: The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is developing an “Operational Reliability for EDIINT AS2” specification which defines procedures to avoid

duplicates and ensure reliability.

Recommendation 15 – Technical Support

There SHOULD be a technical support contact for each Sender of Message and Receiver of Message. The contact information SHOULD include name, email

address and phone number. For 24x7x365 operation, a pager or help desk information SHOULD be also provided.

13.4 Bindings for query callback interface

This section specifies bindings for the Query Callback Interface. Each binding includes a specification for a URI that may be used as the dest parameter to

the subscribe method of section 8.2.5

. Each subsection below specifies the conformance requirement (MAY, SHOULD, SHALL) for each binding.

Implementations MAY support additional bindings of the Query Callback Interface. Any additional binding SHALL NOT use a URI scheme already used by

one of the bindings specified herein.

All destination URIs, whether standardised as a part of this specification or not, SHALL conform to the general syntax for URIs as defined in [RFC3986].

Each binding of the Query Callback Interface may impose additional constraints upon syntax of URIs for use with that binding.

EPCIS Standard

13.4.1 General Considerations for all XML-based bindings

The following applies to all XML-based bindings of the Query Callback Interface, including the bindings specified in section 13.3, 13.3, and 13.3.

The payload delivered to the recipient SHALL be an XML document conforming to the schema specified in section 13.1. Specifically, the payload SHALL be

an EPCISQueryDocument instance whose EPCISBody element contains one of the three elements shown in the table below, according to the method of the

Query Callback Interface being invoked:

Query Callback Interface Method Payload Body Contents

callbackResults QueryResults

callbackQueryTooLargeException QueryTooLargeException

callbackImplementationException ImplementationException

In all cases, the queryName and subscriptionID fields of the payload body element SHALL contain the queryName and subscriptionID values, respectively,

that were supplied in the call to subscribe that created the standing query.

13.4.2 HTTP binding of the query callback interface

The HTTP binding provides for delivery of standing query results in XML via the HTTP protocol using the POST operation. Implementations MAY provide

support for this binding.

The syntax for HTTP destination URIs as used by EPCIS SHALL be as defined in [RFC2616], section 3.2.2. Informally, an HTTP URI has one of the two

following forms:

http://host:port/remainder-of-URL

http://host/remainder-of-URL

where

■ host is the DNS name or IP address of the host where the receiver is listening for incoming HTTP connections.

■ port is the TCP port on which the receiver is listening for incoming HTTP connections. The port and the preceding colon character may be omitted, in

which case the port SHALL default to 80.

■ remainder-of-URL is the URL to which an HTTP POST operation will be directed.

The EPCIS implementation SHALL deliver query results by sending an HTTP POST request to receiver designated in the URI, where remainder-of-URL is

included in the HTTP request-line (as defined in [RFC2616]), and where the payload is an XML document as specified in section 13.3

The interpretation by the EPCIS implementation of the response code returned by the receiver is outside the scope of this specification; however, all

implementations SHALL interpret a response code 2xx (that is, any response code between 200 and 299, inclusive) as a normal response, not indicative of

any error.

EPCIS Standard

13.4.3 HTTPS binding of the query callback interface

The HTTPS binding provides for delivery of standing query results in XML via the HTTP protocol using the POST operation, secured via TLS.

Implementations MAY provide support for this binding.

The syntax for HTTPS destination URIs as used by EPCIS SHALL be as defined in [RFC2818], section 2.4, which in turn is identical to the syntax defined in

[RFC2616], section 3.2.2, with the substitution of https for http. Informally, an HTTPS URI has one of the two following forms:

https://host:port/remainder-of-URL

https://host/remainder-of-URL

where

■ host is the DNS name or IP address of the host where the receiver is listening for incoming HTTP connections.

■ port is the TCP port on which the receiver is listening for incoming HTTP connections. The port and the preceding colon character may be omitted, in

which case the port SHALL default to 443.

■ remainder-of-URL is the URL to which an HTTP POST operation will be directed.

The EPCIS implementation SHALL deliver query results by sending an HTTP POST request to receiver designated in the URI, where remainder-of-URL is

included in the HTTP request-line (as defined in [RFC2616]), and where the payload is an XML document as specified in section 13.3

For the HTTPS binding, HTTP SHALL be used over TLS as defined in [RFC2818]. TLS for this purpose SHALL be implemented as defined in [RFC2246]

except that the mandatory cipher suite is TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA, as defined in [RFC3268] with CompressionMethod.null. Implementations

MAY support additional cipher suites and compression algorithms as desired

The interpretation by the EPCIS implementation of the response code returned by the receiver is outside the scope of this specification; however, all

implementations SHALL interpret a response code 2xx (that is, any response code between 200 and 299, inclusive) as a normal response, not indicative of

any error.

13.4.4 AS2 Binding of the query callback interface

The AS2 binding provides for delivery of standing query results in XML via AS2 [RFC4130]. Implementations MAY provide support for this binding.

The syntax for AS2 destination URIs as used by EPCIS SHALL be as follows:

as2:remainder-of-URI

where

■ remainder-of-URI identifies a specific AS2 communication profile to be used by the EPCIS Service to deliver information to the subscriber. The syntax

of remainder-of-URI is specific to the particular EPCIS Service to which the subscription is made, subject to the constraint that the complete URI

SHALL conform to URI syntax as defined by [RFC3986].

EPCIS Standard

Typically, the value of remainder-of-URI is a string naming a particular AS2 communication profile, where the profile implies such things as the HTTP URL

to which AS2 messages are to be delivered, the security certificates to use, etc. A client of the EPCIS Query Interface wishing to use AS2 for delivery of

standing query results must pre-arrange with the provider of the EPCIS Service the specific value of remainder-of-URI to use.

■ Non-Normative: Explanation: Use of AS2 typically requires pre-arrangement between communicating parties, for purposes of certificate exchange

and other out-of-band negotiation as part of a bilateral trading partner agreement (see [RFC4130] section 5.1). The remainder-of-URI part of the AS2

URI essentially is a name referring to the outcome of a particular pre-arrangement of this kind.

The EPCIS implementation SHALL deliver query results by sending an AS2 message in accordance with [RFC4130]. The AS2 message payload SHALL be

an XML document as specified in section 13.3

Both the EPCIS Service and the recipient of standing query results SHALL comply with the Requirements and SHOULD comply with the Recommendations

listed in the GS1 document “EDIINT AS1 and AS2 Transport Communications Guidelines” [EDICG] For reference, the relevant portions of this document

are reproduced in section 13.3

14 Conformance

The EPCIS standard defines both standard event data and standard interfaces between system components that communicate event data. Both the data

formats and the interfaces may be implemented by a variety of software and data components in any given system.

This section defines what it means to conform to the EPCIS standard. As there are many types of system components that have the potential to conform

to various parts of the EPCIS standard, they are enumerated below. In the text that follows, any reference to a section of the EPCIS standard should be

understood to refer to that section in its entirety, including subsections thereof.

14.1 Conformance of EPCIS XML data

An electronic document is in conformance to the EPCIS standard when all of the following are true:

■ The document is a well-formed XML document conforming to [XML1.0].

■ The document conforms to the XML schema for EPCISDocument specified in section 9.5

or the XML schema for EPCISQueryDocument specified in

section 13.1, as well as all additional constraints specified in the respective section.

■ All EPCIS event data within the document (if any) conforms to the definitions of EPCIS event data specified in section 7 and its subsections.

■ All master data within the document (if any) conforms to the constraints upon master data specified in section 6.1.1 and 9.4.

■ All uses of the extension mechanism (if any) conform to the constraints specified in section 9.1.

■ If a Standard Business Document Header is present, it conforms to the constraints specified in section 9.2.

Many applications of EPCIS will require, in addition to conformance to the EPCIS standard, that data conform to the EPCIS Core Business Vocabulary

[CBV2.0] standard. The CBV standard defines two conformance levels termed “CBV Compliant” and “CBV Compatible”. See the CBV standard for details.

EPCIS Standard

14.2 Conformance of EPCIS capture interface clients

A system is in conformance to the EPCIS standard as a capture interface client when all of the following are true:

■ The system conforms to all statements appearing in either section 11.1 or 11.2 that are indicated as pertaining to a “capture client.”

Such a system is said to conform to a particular binding of the capture interface (or more than one binding) depending on which subsection of Section 11

it conforms to.

14.3 Conformance of EPCIS capture interface servers

A system is in conformance to the EPCIS standard as a capture interface server when all of the following are true:

■ The system conforms to the statements appearing in section 8.1.

■ The system conforms to all statements appearing in either section 11.1 or 11.2 that are indicated as pertaining to a “capture server.”

■ The system processes the recordTime field in EPCIS events as specified in the table in section 7.4.1.

Such a system is said to conform to a particular binding of the capture interface (or more than one binding) depending on which subsection of section 11 it

conforms to.

14.4 Conformance of EPCIS query interface clients

A system is in conformance to the EPCIS standard as a query interface client when either or both of the following are true:

■ The system conforms to the definition of a “sender” as specified in [WSI] and sends messages in conformance to the WSDL specification in

section 13.2

■ The system conforms to all statements appearing in section 13.3 that are indicated as pertaining to a “query client.”

Such a system is said to conform to a particular binding of the query interface (or more than one binding) depending on which subsection of section 12 it

conforms to.

14.5 Conformance of EPCIS query interface servers

A system is in conformance to the EPCIS standard as a query interface server when all of the following are true:

■ The system conforms to the statements appearing in section 8.2.

■ The system includes the recordTime field in all EPCIS events returned as query results, as specified in the table in section 7.4.1.

■ One or both of the following are true:

EPCIS Standard

1. The system conforms to the definition of a “receiver” as specified in [WSI], receives messages in conformance to the WSDL specification in

section 11.2, and also conforms to the additional constraints specified in section 13.2

2. The system conforms to all statements appearing in section 13.3 that are indicated as pertaining to a “query server.”

Such a system is said to conform to a particular binding of the query interface (or more than one binding) depending on which subsection of section 12 it

conforms to.

14.6 Conformance of EPCIS query callback interface implementations

A system is in conformance to the EPCIS standard as a query callback interface implementation when it conforms to the statements appearing in one or

more subsections of section 13.3

. Such a system is said to conform to a particular binding of the query callback interface (or more than one binding)

depending on which subsection it conforms to.

14.7 Conformance of JSON/JSON-LD bindings

Per section 10.3:

1. The JSON representation of EPCIS 2.0 data SHALL validate against the JSON Schema, published at https://ref.gs1.org/standards/epcis/2.0.0/epcis-

json-schema.json.

2. The JSON-LD representation of EPCIS 2.0 data SHALL validate against the SHACL file, published at https://ref.gs1.org/standards/epcis/2.0.0/epcis-

shacl.ttl.

14.8 Conformance of REST Interface for EPCIS 2.0 Servers

Per section 12.3:

1. An EPCIS server SHALL support named queries through the /queries endpoint.

□ Each endpoint SHALL support HTTP content negotiation [HTTPSemanticsContent] for at least JSON [JSON] and JSON-LD [JSONLD]. All responses

SHALL return a full EPCIS Document containing the list of events within the EPCIS Body.

□ If the client requests a media type that the server does not support, the server SHALL reply with HTTP status code 406 Not Acceptable.

□ For all endpoints, an EPCIS server SHALL support GS1-CBV-Version, GS1-EPC-Format, GS1-CBV-Format, GS1-EPCIS-Version, GS1-EPCIS-Min,

GS1-EPCIS-Max and GS1-Extensions.

□ if a client omits the EPCIS version or EPCIS version min/max range, the server SHALL use the EPCIS version defined by the GS1-EPCIS-Version

header.

EPCIS Standard

□ For the /capture endpoint, the server SHALL additionally support GS1-EPCIS-Capture-Limit, to specify the maximum number of events that can be

captured per call and SHALL support GS1-EPCIS-Capture-File-Size-Limit to specify the EPCIS document size in bytes / octets.

□ A server SHALL support GS1-Capture-Error-Behaviour to declare the error behaviour of the capture interface.

□ The default value of GS1-Capture-Error-Behaviour SHALL be rollback.

□ Each endpoint SHALL respond to the OPTIONS verb by returning the list of allowed HTTP verbs as well as supported headers for a resource and

their default values.

□ The server SHALL support the OPTIONS method for each endpoint and SHALL provide default header values for each custom EPCIS header it

supports.

Per section 12.4

■ EPCIS clients SHALL authenticate themselves for every API call.

■ If the authentication fails, the server SHALL respond with HTTP status code 401 [RFC7235].

■ If a client is authenticated but is not authorised to perform an operation, the server SHALL respond with HTTP status code 403 Forbidden [RFC7235].

Per section 12.5

■ An EPCIS repository SHALL implement pagination, to return events in manageable chunks.

■ If the client does not specify the perPage value, the server SHALL use the default value of 30.

■ Pages SHALL form a linked list, using the Web link model [RFC8288].

■ A server SHALL include the quoted URL of the next page in the Link response header.

■ Events SHALL be returned atomically; events SHALL NOT be split using pagination.

Per section 12.6:

■ Client calls the capture interface to send one or more EPCIS events in the JSON or JSON-LD format. If the event syntax is XML, events SHALL conform

to the XML event specifications specified in EPCIS 2.0 [EPCIS2.0].

■ If the event syntax is JSON/JSON-LD, events SHALL conform to the JSON/JSON-LD data format specified in section 10

■ If GS1-Capture-Error-Behaviour is rollback, the server SHALL guarantee that either all events are captured, or all events are rejected.

■ If GS1-Capture-Error-Behaviour is proceed, the server SHALL try to capture as many EPCIS events as possible.

■ If events were successfully accepted, /capture SHALL respond with 202 Accepted and a captureID.

■ If unique eventIDs are populated, these SHALL use one of the two eventID formats specified in section 8.9 of the CBV, which specifies Event

Identifiers.

EPCIS Standard

■ In cases of failures other than GS1-EPCIS-Capture-Limit or GS1-EPCIS-Capture-File-Size-Limit , /capture SHALL indicate why the operation was

unsuccessful by returning a HTTP status code in the range 4xx.

■ The capture job endpoint, /capture/{captureID}, SHALL expose the state of the capture job to the client.

Per section 12.7

■ When calling the GET method on the /eventTypes endpoint, it SHALL return a list of all EPCIS event types that are present in that repository.

■ Calling the GET method on /events SHALL return all the EPCIS events present in the repository (subject to pagination and refinement via the EPCIS

query language).

■ By definition, top-level resources SHALL NOT be nested.

■ Each EPCIS event type URL SHALL be identified by a unique URL, such as https://example.com/eventTypes/ObjectEvent/events for the collection of

object events.

■ For the /events/{eventID} endpoint, if the eventID is populated, then each event SHALL use one of the Event IDs syntax specified in section 8.9 of

the CBV.

■ When the characters / ? = and & are used with their special meanings to delimit the structural components of a URL or URL query string, such

characters SHALL NOT be percent encoded.

■ An EPCIS server SHALL support the top-level resources /epcs and /events .

■ These resources SHALL comply with the following pattern:

/{top-level resource}s/{optional vocabulary prefix}:{resource identifier}/events

■ By default, when a value of {bizLocation}, {bizStep}, {readPoint} or {disposition} is expressed without a namespace qualifier within an endpoint URL,

the value SHALL be considered to be using the GS1 Core Business Vocabulary (CBV).

■ If a value is not using the CBV, the URI of the vocabulary SHALL be specified in the GS1-Extensions header as a mapping to a Compact URI

Expression [CURIE] prefix and the value itself SHALL be expressed as a Compact URI Expression [CURIE].

■ If GS1-Extensions contains more than one vocabulary, each vocabulary SHALL be separated by a “,”.

■ If the GS1-Extensions header is set and the complete resource address is set, specifying the complete resource address for top-level resources SHALL

take precedence over the vocabulary specified in the GS1-Extensions header.

Per section 12.8

■ EPCIS SHALL support named queries through the /queries endpoint.

■ A named query resembles a stored procedure. It consists of a human-readable name and a query definition. The name SHALL be unique, as it is part

of a query’s URL.

■ The query SHALL be defined on creation time and transmitted in the request body.

EPCIS Standard

■ A named EPCIS events query SHALL support subscription using HTTP callbacks (aka Webhooks).

■ When connecting to a query subscription, the client SHALL have the option to specify from when onwards the query applies with the initial record time

(initialRecordTime parameter).

■ By default, a client SHALL only receive a query result when the query result is not empty.

■ If the subscription contains an error, the server SHALL respond with HTTP status code 400 and indicate the error as SubscriptionControlsException.

■ The query SHALL only execute if a new event matches the query in full.

■ Scheduled query conditions and stream flag SHALL be mutually exclusive.

■ An EPCIS 2.0 server SHALL support the URL query string parameters syntax and SHOULD support the JSON EPCIS query document syntax.

■ For EPCIS queries in the URL, the URL length SHALL be limited to 2000 characters.

■ An EPCIS query in the URL SHALL be percent-encoded (see [RFC3986]) and inserted in the URL following “?”.

■ The “=” infix operator SHALL have the query parameter on the left and value on the right.

■ If the EPCIS query parameter supports an array of values, each value SHALL be separated by a vertical pipe “|”.

■ Each clause within the URL query string SHALL be connected by an “&”.

■ An EPCIS 2.0 query body using the REST interface SHALL be serialised as a JSON object. The value of the query key within that JSON object

SHALL validate against the schema defined at: https://ref.gs1.org/standards/epcis/2.0.0/

query-schema.json

■ POST /queries/{queryName} endpoint SHALL accept a request body in application/ld+json (JSON-LD) or application/json (JSON) format.

■ EPCIS 2.0 defines a standard context resource for the JSON-LD format of EPCIS data and any user-defined mappings SHALL NOT conflict with those.

Per section 12.10:

■ Error responses SHALL be formatted using the “Problem Details for HTTP APIs” [RFC7807] standard.

An EPCIS 2.0 server SHALL return HTTP status codes and SHALL include the exceptions in the body.

15 UML Diagrams for SBDH

The XML data format for EPCIS uses the Standard Business Document Header (SBDH) declared within EPCISHeader.

This appendix includes UML class diagrams for SBDH; one is aligned with the text of the SBDH specification, the other aligned with the XSD contained

within the same SBDH specification.

These are not central to the EPCIS event data model, and therefore not included alongside the main UML class diagrams (see section 7.2.1

EPCIS Standard

■ Note: The JSON/JSON-LD data format for EPCIS does not use SBDH, but the optional fields epcis:sender epcis:receiver, epcis:instanceIdentifier and

the mandatory field epcis:creationDate can together provide similar audit trail functionality if EPCIS data in JSON/JSON-LD format is sent as a

message.

15.1 UML aligned with text of SBDH specification

EPCIS Standard

15.2 UML aligned with XSD of SBDH specification

16 References

[ALE] EPCglobal, “The Application Level Events (ALE) Specification,” EPCglobal Standard Specification, http://www.gs1.org/ale.

EPCIS Standard

[CBV2.0] GS1, “GS1 Core Business Vocabulary (CBV) Version 2.0 Standard,” GS1 standard, June 2022, http://www.gs1.org/epcis.

[CBV1.2.2] GS1, “GS1 Core Business Vocabulary (CBV) Version 1.2.2 Standard,” GS1 standard, October 2017, http://www.gs1.org/epcis.

[CBV CN 17-339] GS1, Core Business Vocabulary Change Notification (CBVCN), "Addition of tax ID to the CBV," March 2018, http://www.gs1.org/epcis.

[CBV CN 18-108] GS1, Core Business Vocabulary Change Notification (CBVCN), "Addition of attributes for fish traceability to the CBV," July 2018,

http://www.gs1.org/epcis

[CBV] GS1, "Core Business Vocabulary (CBV)," GS1 standard, https://www.gs1.org/standards/epcis

[CEFACT20] United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, “Recommendation 20: Codes for Units of Measure Used in International Trade,”

http://www.unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/cefact/recommendations/rec20/rec20_Rev7e_2010.zip

[CRON] https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/007904975/utilities/crontab.html

[CURIE] Compact URI Expressions, https://www.w3.org/TR/curie/

[DCTERMS] Dublin Core Metadata Inititative Terms, http://purl.org/dc/terms/

[EDICG] GS1, “EDIINT AS1 and AS2 Transport Communications Guidelines,” GS1 Technical Document, February 2006, http://www.gs1.org/gs1-

xml/guideline/ediint-as1-and-as2-transport-communication-guidelines.

[EPCIS1.2] https://www.gs1.org/sites/default/files/docs/epc/EPCIS-Standard-1.2-r-2016-09-29.pdf

[EPCISGuideline] GS1, “EPCIS and CBV Implementation Guideline,” GS1 Guideline, http://www.gs1.org/docs/epc/EPCIS_Guideline.pdf.

[GLNAR3.0] "GS1 GLN Allocation Rules Standard," GS1 standard, https://www.gs1.org/standards/gs1-gln-allocation-rules-standard/current-standard

[GS1Arch] “The GS1 System Architecture,” GS1 technical document,

http://www.gs1.org/docs/gsmp/architecture/GS1_System_Architecture.pdf

[GS1UC] “Unit Converter UNECE Rec 20”, JavaScript library for converting quantitative values expressed using UN ECE Recommendation 20 unit codes,

https://ref.gs1.org/tools/UnitConverterUNECERec20

[GS1DL] GS1 Digital Link Standard: URI Syntax, https://www.gs1.org/standards/gs1-digital-link

[HTML] https://html.spec.whatwg.org/

[HTTP] https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2616

[HTTPHeaders] https://www.iana.org/assignments/message-headers/message-headers.xhtml

[HTTPSemanticsContent] https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc2616#section-12

IETF RFC 8259 [ https://datatracker.ietf.org/html/rfc8259 ]

ISO/IEC 21778:2017

EPCIS Standard

[ISODir2] ISO, “Rules for the structure and drafting of International Standards (ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2, 2018, 8th edition),”

https://www.iso.org/sites/directives/current/part2/index.xhtml

; specifically section 7, "Verbal forms for expressions of provisions",

https://www.iec.ch/standardsdev/resources/draftingpublications/directives/principles/verbal_forms.htm.

[JSON] JavaScript Object Notation, https://www.json.org

[JSON-LD] JSON for Linked Data v1.1, https://json-ld.org, https://www.w3.org/TR/json-ld11/

JSON Schema: https://json-schema.org/specification.html

[MQTT] https://docs.oasis-open.org/mqtt/mqtt/v5.0/os/mqtt-v5.0-os.html - _Toc3901236

[OpenAPI] https://spec.openapis.org/oas/latest.html

[OWL] Web Ontology Language (OWL), https://www.w3.org/TR/owl2-syntax/

[RDFa] RDFa 1.1 Primer, https://www.w3.org/TR/rdfa-primer/

[RDFS] RDF Schema (RDFS), https://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-schema/

[RDF/XML] RDF 1.1 XML Syntax, https://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-syntax-grammar/

[REST] https://www.ics.uci.edu/~fielding/pubs/dissertation/fielding_dissertation.pdf

[RFC1738] T. Berners-Lee, L. Masinter, M. McCahill, “Uniform Resource Locators (URL),” RFC 1738, December 1994,

https://datatracker.ietf.org/html/rfc1738

[RFC8141] R. Moats, “URN Syntax,” Internet Engineering Task Force Request for Comments RFC-8141, May 1997,

https://datatracker.ietf.org/html/rfc8141

[RFC2246] T. Dierks, C. Allen, “The TLS Protocol, Version 1.0,” RFC2246, January 1999, https://datatracker.ietf.org/html/rfc2246.

[RFC2616] R. Fielding, J. Gettys, J. Mogul, H. Frystyk, L. Masinter, P. Leach, T. Berners-Lee, “Hypertext Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.1,” RFC2616, June

1999, https://datatracker.ietf.org/html/rfc2616

[RFC2818] E. Escorla, “HTTP Over TLS,” RFC2818, May 2000, https://datatracker.ietf.org/html/rfc2818.

[RFC3268] P. Chown, “Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) Ciphersuites for Transport Layer Security (TLS),” RFC3268, June 2002,

https://datatracker.ietf.org/html/rfc3268

[RFC3986] T. Berners-Lee, R. Fielding, L. Masinter, “Uniform Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax,” RFC3986, January 2005,

https://datatracker.ietf.org/html/rfc3986

[RFC4122] https://datatracker.ietf.org/html/rfc4122

[RFC4130] D. Moberg and R. Drummond, “MIME-Based Secure Peer-to-Peer Business Data Interchange Using HTTP, Applicability Statement 2 (AS2),”

RFC4130, July 2005, https://datatracker.ietf.org/html/rfc4130

[RFC6455] https://datatracker.ietf.org/html/rfc6455

EPCIS Standard

[RFC7231] https://datatracker.ietf.org/html/rfc7231

[RFC7235] https://datatracker.ietf.org/html/rfc7235

[RFC7303] https://datatracker.ietf.org/html/rfc7303

[RFC7807] https://datatracker.ietf.org/html/rfc7807

[RFC8288] https://datatracker.ietf.org/html/rfc8288

[SBDH] United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT), “Standard Business Document Header Technical Specification,

Version 1.3,” June 2004, http://www.gs1.org/services/gsmp/kc/ecom/xml/xml_sbdh.html

[SBDHGS1] GS1, "Standard Business Document Header (SBDH) Version 1.3 Technical Implementation Guide," July 2012,

https://www.gs1.org/sites/default/files/docs/xml/SBDH_v1_3_Technical_Implementation_Guide.pdf

[SHACL] Shapes Constraint Language (SHACL), W3C Recommendation of 20 July 2017, https://www.w3.org/TR/shacl/

[SKOS] Simple Knowledge Organization System, https://www.w3.org/TR/skos-primer/

[SOAP] https://www.w3.org/TR/soap/

[SPARQL] SPARQL Protocol and RDF Query Language, https://www.w3.org/TR/sparql11-query/

[SSN] Semantic Sensor Network Ontology, W3C Recommendation of 19 October 2017, https://www.w3.org/TR/vocab-ssn/

[TDS] GS1, “GS1 EPCglobal Tag Data Standard" (TDS), GS1 standard, http://www.gs1.org/epc/tag-data-standard

[Turtle] Terse RDF Triple Notation, https://www.w3.org/TR/turtle/

[URL] https://url.spec.whatwg.org/

[WebSocket] https://datatracker.ietf.org/html/rfc6455

[WSDL1.1] E. Christensen, F. Curbera, G. Meredith, S. Weerawarana, “Web Services Description Language (WSDL) 1.1,” W3C Note, March 2001,

http://www.w3.org/TR/2001/NOTE-wsdl-20010315

[WSI] K. Ballinger, D. Ehnebuske, M. Gudgin, M. Nottingham, P. Yendluri, “Basic Profile Version 1.0,” WS-i Final Material, April 2004, http://www.ws-

i.org/Profiles/BasicProfile-1.0-2004-04-16.html.

[XML] https://www.w3.org/XML/

[XML1.0] T. Bray, J. Paoli, C. M. Sperberg-McQueen, E. Maler, F. Yergeau, “Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 (Third Edition),” W3C

Recommendation, February 2004, http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/REC-xml-20040204/

[XMLDR] “XML Design Rules for EAN.UCC, Version 2.0,” February 2004.

[XMLVersioning] D. Orchard, “Versioning XML Vocabularies,” December 2003, http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2003/12/03/versioning.html

EPCIS Standard

[XSD1] H. Thompson, D. Beech, M. Maloney, N. Mendelsohn, “XML Schema Part 1: Structures,” W3C Recommendation, May 2001,

http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlschema-1/

[XSD2] P. Biron, A. Malhotra, “XML Schema Part 2: Datatypes,” W3C Recommendation, May 2001, http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlschema-2/.